THE  RELIGIONS  AND  PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST 


THE  RELIGIONS 
AND  PHILOSOPHIES 
OF  THE  EAST  »  m  58 


BY 

J.  M.  KENNEDY 

Author  of  "THE  QUINTESSENCE  OF  NIETZSCHE" 


"Tout  ce  que  nous  pensons,  et  toutes  les 
mani&res  dont  nous  pensons,  ont  leur  origine  en 
Asie." 

Gobineau. 


NEW    YORK 

JOHN  LANE  COMPANY 

MCMXI 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFACE  ......         ix 

CHAPTER  I          .....  i 

Primitive  civilisation — Origin  of  religion — Influence 
of  politics  on  religion — Meaning  of  the  word. 

CHAPTER  II  .  .  .  .11 

The  Aryans — Early  wanderings — Brahma — Aryan  and 
Semitic  mythology  —  The  caste  system  —  The 
Aryans  in  Europe — The  priestly  caste — Early 
Brahmanical  writings — Law  codes — The  Vedas — 
Literary  development — Gods. 

CHAPTER  III       .  .  .  .  .43 

Later  Brahmanism — The  Bhagavad-Gita — Krishna — 
Development  of  Krishnaism — Krishna  and  the 
New  Testament  —  Religious  system  of  the 
Bhagavad-Gita— Chandals— Pariahs. 

CHAPTER  IV  .  .  .  .54 

The  rise  of  Buddhism — Religion  in  theory  and  practice 
— Birth  of  the  Buddha — His  early  years — Studies 
and  temptations — His  system  of  propagating  the 
faith — Illness  and  death — Character  of  the  Buddha 
— European  influence  of  Buddhism. 

CHAPTER  V         .  ,  .  .  -77 

Buddhism  continued.  Nirvana  —  Transmigration  — 
Commandments  for  monks  and  laymen — Relics 
of  Buddha — Distinction  between  Buddhism  and 
Christianity  —  King  Asoka  the  Buddhist— The 
Edicts  of  Asoka — Bureaucracy  foiled — Buddhistic 
writings. 

vii 


viii  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

CHAPTER  VI  .  .  .  .98 

The  early  Arabs — Their  religious  system — Birth  of 
Mohammed — His  early  studies — The  Hanifs — 
Mohammed's  alleged  "epilepsy"  —  His  lonely 
meditations — His  first  revelation — Early  converts 
— Quarrels  with  the  Meccans — Flight  to  Medina 
— Progress  of  Islamism — Capture  of  Medina — 
Death  of  the  Prophet — His  successors. 

CHAPTER  VII      .  .  .  .  .142 

Mohammedanism  continued.  The  Koran — Its  form — 
The  psychology  of  Mohammed — Themes  dealt 
with  in  the  Koran — The  poetical  Suras — Legal 
decisions — Holy  wars — The  ethics  of  Islamism — 
Commentaries  on  the  Koran — Islamic  fatalism — 
Development  of  Mohammedanism — Sunnites — 
Shiites — Babism — Behaism . 

CHAPTER  VIII    .  .  .  .  .185 

The  Jews  —  Their  condition  under  the  Egyptians 
— Moses  —  Monotheism  v.  Polytheism  —  The 
Israelites  leave  Egypt — Sinai — The  Ten  Com- 
mandments—  Jewish  morality — Its  aristocratic 
nature — The  Promised  Land — The  kings — The 
Babylonian  Captivity — Toleration. 

CHAPTER  IX  .  .  .  .204 

Indian  philosophy— The  Jains — China— Confucius, 
his  system  of  morals  —  Lao-Tze  —  Taoism — 
Mencius — Lack  of  poetry  in  China — Japan,  its 
early  religious  system — Shintoism — Buddhism — 
Bushido — The  Samurai. 

CHAPTER  X         .....       234 

Minor  Asiatic  religions — The  Babylonians — Zoroaster 
— Parsees— Hittites — Mithraism. 

CHAPTER  XI  .  .  .  .252 

Summary  and  conclusion — East  and  West — The  influ- 
ence of  Asia  in  Europe. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY     .  ,  .  .  .269 

INDEX      ...  .  273 


PREFACE 

AMONG  the  comparatively  few  people  in 
England  who  take  any  interest  in  philosophy, 
religion,  metaphysics  and  allied  subjects,  it  is 
certain  that  Nietzsche's  works  have  during  the 
last  year  or  two  been  studied  with  increasing 
attention.  It  is  not,  perhaps,  surprising  that 
his  views  should  have  been  at  first  received 
with  astonishment  and  impatience  ;  for  England 
seems  fated  to  be  separated  from  the  Continent, 
wherever  thought  is  concerned,  by  a  distance 
which  it  takes  a  quarter  of  a  century  to  traverse. 
Again,  the  absurd  methods  of  teaching  foreign 
languages  adopted  in  our  schools  cut  us  off 
from  communication  with  many  an  excellent 
book  or  review  article  which  shows  the  trend 
of  the  times  abroad,  particularly  in  Germany 
and  Italy,  the  two  countries  where  the  phil- 
osophy of  morality  has  been  for  some  years  in 
its  most  flourishing  condition. 


x  PREFACE 

Nietzsche  and  his  school,  however,  have 
come  to  stay ;  and  I  merely  mention  these 
matters  by  way  of  showing  that,  if  any  views 
on  the  moral  side  of  religion  expressed  in  the 
following  pages  should  seem  strange  to  the 
less  advanced  section  of  the  British  public,  they 
are  nevertheless  founded  on  a  basis  which  has 
the  authority  of  most  of  the  best  Continental 
thinkers  of  repute  :  the  Nietzschian  standard 
of  good  and  bad. 

What  is  good  ?  Everything  that  increases  the  feeling  of 
power,  the  will  to  power,  power  itself,  in  man. 

What  is  bad  ?     All  that  proceeds  from  weakness. 

What  is  happiness  ?  The  feeling  that  power  is  increas- 
ing, that  resistance  is  being  overcome. 

The  pages  that  follow,  then,  do  not  merely 
record  the  main  principles  of  the  most  important 
religions  of  the  East,  but  they  also  indicate  an 
attempt  to  apply  to  those  religions  the  standards 
of  moral  values  referred  to  above.  I  believe  I 
am  correct  in  saying  that  no  such  attempt  has 
hitherto  been  made.  In  the  bibliography  at 
the  end  of  the  book  I  have  named  about  a 
third  of  the  works  to  which  I  am  mainly  in- 
debted ;  but  I  have  also  had  the  advantage  of  a 


PREFACE  xi 

sufficiently  long  period  of  residence  in  the  East 
to  enable  me  to  observe  personally  certain 
characteristics  which  I  have  referred  to  here 
and  there.  For  several  interesting  suggestions 
concerning  Mohammed,  I  have  to  thank  Dr 
Oscar  Levy  ;  while  Mr  A.  R.  Orage,  Editor  of 
The  New  Age,  who  deserves  to  be  better  known 
for  the  keen  psychological  insight  he  has  brought 
to  bear  on  Oriental  problems,  has  communicated 
to  me  his  views  upon  the  sources  of  the  Laws 
of  Manu.  Lastly,  Mr  A.  M.  Ludovici  has 
reminded  me  of  some  points,  usually  forgotten, 
in  connection  with  Greek  art.  As  the  views 
expressed  are  entirely  my  own,  however,  none 
of  these  gentlemen  is  to  be  saddled  with  the 
responsibility  for  any  of  the  statements,  con- 
troversial or  otherwise,  which  I  have  made. 

J.  M.  KENNEDY. 


THE    RELIGIONS    AND 
PHILOSOPHIES     OF    THE     EAST 

CHAPTER  I 

Primitive   civilisation — Origin   of   religion — Influence  of 
politics  on  religion — Meaning  of  the  word. 

WITHIN  the  last  fifty  years  probably  more 
light  has  been  thrown,  directly  and  indirectly, 
on  the  problem  of  the  origin  of  civilisation  and 
society  than  on  any  other  subject  within  the  range 
of  science.  Geology,  for  example,  has  enabled  us 
to  gauge,  with  something  resembling  accuracy, 
the  age  of  the  earth.  The  fossil  remains  of 
animals  which  we  find  it  difficult  even  to  name, 
provide  us  with  a  means  of  ascertaining  what 
kind  of  living  creatures  the  earth  actually 
supported  millions  of  years  ago.  To  these  we 
must  add  the  discoveries  made  in  the  domains 
of  philology  and  archaeology.  Even  so  conser- 
vative a  philologist  as  Prof.  Henry  Sweet,  for 
example,  estimates  that  the  Aryan  language 


3  •'  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

was  spoken  in  a  pure  form  not  less  than  12,000 
years  ago.  Fragments  of  monuments  and 
inscriptions,  portions  of  the  ruins  of  long- 
buried  cities,  have  enabled  us  to  construct  the 
history  of  past  nations  and  empires.  More 
than  all,  the  enormous  impetus  given  to 
psychological  investigations,  first  by  Nietzsche, 
and  continued  by  his  followers,  more  especially 
the  younger  school  of  Italian  psychologists, 
represented  by  Sera,  has  led  us  to  read  history 
and  study  sciences  in  an  entirely  new  frame  of 
mind.  To  take  another  branch  of  the  subject, 
until  comparatively  recently  the  morality  of 
religion  was  inextricably  confused  with  its 
dogma.  The  former  is  all-important,  the 
latter  of  trifling  and  ephemeral  value.  Kant, 
Schopenhauer,  Hegel,  Darwin,  Huxley, 
Spencer,  and  their  numerous  followers  and 
imitators,  spent  a  great  part  of  their  energies 
in  consciously  or  unconsciously  disproving 
Christian  dogma,  while  all  the  time  leaving  its 
morality,  its  values  of  good  and  evil,  unharmed. 
For  centuries,  ever  since  the  establishment  of 
Christianity  as  the  religion  of  Western  Europe, 
all  the  views  of  eminent  scientists,  even  those 
who  turned  against  the  Christian  religion  and 
sought  to  disprove  it,  were  subconsciously 
influenced  by  Christian  morality.  It  is  only 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST          3 

since  the  advent  of  Nietzsche  (for  Goethe, 
when  he  referred  to  this  matter,  did  so  in 
cautious  sentences,  not  meant  for  general  per- 
ception) that  scientists  have  begun  to  see  their 
errors  in  this  respect,  and  it  is  only  since  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  that  the 
dawn  of  a  new  era  in  thought  may  be  said  to 
have  appeared.  For  the  first  time  in  nineteen 
long  centuries — centuries  of  bigotry  and  super- 
stition never  before  equalled  in  the  history  of  the 
world — men  have  an  opportunity  of  consider- 
ing scientific  and  ethical  problems  with  their 
minds  untrammelled  by  the  Christian  values  of 
good  and  evil.  But  the  Goddess  of  Wisdom 
has  been  imprisoned  in  an  underground  dungeon 
since  the  dawn  of  the  Christian  era,  and  she 
still  feels  ill  at  ease  in  the  light  of  day. 

When  we  endeavour  to  trace  the  origin  of 
civilisation  as  a  stepping-stone  to  the  origin 
and  formation  of  religions,  we  find  the  back- 
ward path  even  more  difficult  than  might  have 
been  expected.  China,  I  ndia,  and  Egypt  are  the 
three  great  strongholds  of  ancient  learning,  and 
in  these  countries  the  records  go  back  some- 
thing like  6000  years.  But  what  we  can  now 
know  of,  say,  China  in  the  year  4000  B.C.,  is 
sufficient  to  show  us  that  even  at  that  time  a 
portion  of  the  country  was  highly  civilised, 


4  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

possessing  all  the  arts  of  a  progressive  com- 
munity, including  even  a  fully-developed 
system  of  handwriting.  In  India  the  story  is 
the  same.  The  further  we  trace  back  what  we 
conceive  to  be  the  primitive  origins  of  society, 
we  find  that  we  are  not  engaged  in  a  study 
of  primitive  origins  at  all,  but  of  something 
highly  complex,  something  which  has  evolved 
scientifically  in  the  course  of  thousands  of 
years.  To  return  to  Professor  Sweet  again, 
we  know,  as  every  philologist  knows,  that  the 
Aryan  language  dates  from  at  least  10,000  B.C. 
But  the  very  fact  that  such  a  language  could 
be  in  existence  one  hundred  centuries  before 
the  birth  of  Christ  is  sufficient  to  show  us  that 
it  must  have  been  spoken  and  inscribed  on 
rocks  and  cavern-roofs  hundreds  of  years  before 
that,  and  that  those  who  spoke  it  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  make  it  endure  for  a  long  time 
must  have  been  a  highly-organised  body  of 
men — an  early  society,  in  fact ;  the  ancestors 
of  those  who  were  destined  in  later  ages  to 
found  the  first  great  Indian  Empire.  The 
mind  may  well  become  appalled  when  contem- 
plating the  consequences  of  what  has  happened 
in  the  world  during  a  period  of  12,000  years  ; 
but  a  close  psychological  examination  of  the 
question  makes  it  clear  that  the  change  which 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST  5 

has  taken  place  in  the  essential  nature  of  man 
between  10,000  B.C.  and  the  present  day  is  so 
slight  as  to  be  almost  imperceptible.  Some 
instinct  has  always  actuated  animals  and  men 
from  the  beginnings  of  life  on  earth.  Darwin 
and  the  evolutionists  called  it  the  struggle  for 
existence  ;  Schopenhauer  named  it  the  Will  to 
live  ;  Nietzsche  designated  it  more  correctly 
by  the  term  Will  to  Power.  In  any  case, 
all  three  definitions  connote  the  idea  of  a  cease- 
less struggle,  in  which  the  fittest,  though 
doubtless  not  always  the  best,  survive. 

In  the  case  of  the  human  kind  this  struggle 
led  to  the  elimination  of  those  who  were  unfitted 
to  stand  the  ruthless  competition — the  weak, 
the  degenerate,  the  crippled,  the  physically  and 
mentally  defective.  To  trace  how  the  weak 
gradually  assured  their  safety  by  influencing 
the  sacerdotal  classes,  and  little  by  little  formed 
religions  of  their  own,  which  they  sedulously 
upheld,  cultivated  and  propagated,  forms  one 
of  the  most  fascinating  studies  a  psychologist 
can  undertake.  Such  a  religion,  as  Nietzsche 
and  others  have  conclusively  demonstrated,  is 
Christianity  ;  such  also,  but,  as  will  be  seen 
later  on,  to  a  much  less  extent,  is  Buddhism. 

In  entering  upon  the  investigation  of  any 
Eastern  religion,  however,  the  student  will 


6  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

find  himself  in  difficulties  if  he  wishes  to  make 
an  impartial  study  of  the  question  through 
books  written  in  English.  It  has,  unfortunately, 
happened  that  nearly  all  the  English  works 
dealing  with  this  question  have  been  written 
either  by  missionaries  or  by  travellers  and 
Government  officials  without  any  psychological 
insight.  As  a  consequence,  nearly  every  book 
by  these  people  is  written  with  a  conscious  or 
unconscious  prejudice — that  Christianity  is  the 
final  word  in  religion,  and  that  all  other  faiths 
must  necessarily  be  inferior.  When  endeavour- 
ing to  examine  into  the  origin  of  religions,  and 
to  ascertain  the  distinctions  between  the  different 
faiths  of  the  East  and  the  West,  I  was  unable 
to  find  any  English  book  which  did  not,  in 
some  chapter  or  another,  read  like  a  tract. 
One  cannot  but  marvel  at  the  impudence  and 
conceit  of  the  Christian  missionary  who  goes 
to,  say,  India,  after  a  short  course  of  training 
and  straightway  proceeds  to  confute  with 
specially-prepared  arguments  the  doctrines  of 
a  belief  devised  by  a  much  superior  class  of 
men — a  belief,  indeed,  to  which  Christianity 
itself  can  easily  be  traced. 

Two  world-wide  religions  owe  their  huge 
followings  and  development  to  the  hazard  of 
politics.  The  first  in  order  of  time  is  Buddhism, 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST  7 

which  was  adopted  by  the  Indian  king,  Asoka, 
about  250  B.C.  to  keep  his  turbulent  subjects 
quiet  in  order  that  he  might  consolidate  the 
fruits  of  his  victories.  The  second  was 
Christianity,  elevated  to  a  State  religion  by 
Constantine  the  Great  in  324  A.D.,  though  the 
Roman  emperor  himself  did  not  show  any 
particular  eagerness  to  be  baptised.  But,  if 
Christianity  suits  the  people  of  Europe,  it  does 
not  follow  that  it  suits  the  people  of  India,  any 
more  than  we  can  say  that  Buddhism  is  a  good 
religion  for  Burmah,  and  is  therefore  suitable 
for  England.  But  we  must  come  back  to 
Nietzsche's  outlook  again.  A  religion,  or  a 
system  of  morals,  which  comes  to  the  same 
thing,  is  invented  by  a  certain  type  of  people 
in  order  that  they  may  propagate  and  preserve 
their  race.  What  tends  to  their  preservation, 
i.e.,  what  helps  them  to  attain  to  power  over 
their  competitors  will  be,  to  them,  "  good  "  ; 
what  hinders  them  from  attaining  their  object 
will  be  "bad."  It  naturally  follows  that  the 
"good"  of  Buddhism  will  not  necessarily 
correspond  to  the  "good"  of  Judaism,  and 
vice  versa.  We  can  thus  perceive,  to  some 
extent,  the  mistake  made  by  the  Christian 
missionaries  who  proceeded  to  write  about  and 
criticise  other  religions.  They  neglect  the 


8  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

early  history  of  Christianity  and  the  influence 
upon  Christ's  teaching  of  the  Ebionites  and  the 
Essenes. 

Before  we  proceed  further,  however,  what  is 
religion  ?  Possibly  we  might  define  it  briefly 
as  that  which  endeavours  to  bring  man  into 
contact  with  a  higher  power  ;  but  the  actual 
meaning  of  the  word  has  varied  from  century 
to  century.  Religion  may  now  mean  faith, 
cult,  morality,  hope,  terror,  ecstasy,  fear  of  the 
gods.  A  Central  African  negro  kneels  down 
before  some  fetish  and  would  understand  by 
the  "  religion  "  the  instinct  which  urges  him  to 
do  this.  For  Kant,  on  the  other  hand,  religion 
simply  means  morality.  The  Brahman  has 
one  form  of  religion  in  his  youth,  when  he 
offers  up  his  little  sacrifices  at  daybreak  and 
prays  "  Enlighten  us,  we  beseech  thee,"  and 
another  in  his  old  age  when,  looking  upon 
prayer  and  sacrifice  as  useless,  he  retires  to 
some  solitary  spot  and  gives  himself  up  to 
meditation.  Fichte  regards  religion  merely  as 
a  science.  Schleiermacher  knows  it  as  "the 
knowledge  of  our  absolute  dependence,  some- 
thing which  determines  us  and  which  we  cannot 
determine  in  return/'  Hegel  defines  it  as 
"  unconstrained  liberty."  "  For,"  he  says,  "  if 
it  is  dependence  which  makes  religion,  then  the 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST          9 

dog  is  the  most  religious  of  all  beings."  For 
Feuerbach,  again,  religion  is  love  of  one's  self. 
"  For  the  feeling  which  is  at  the  base  of  all 
the  feelings,  desires  and  actions  of  man  is  the 
satisfying  of  the  human  being  and  human 
egoism  :  it  is  the  sick  heart  of  man  which  is 
the  source  of  all  religion  and  all  misery." 

In  tracing  the  development  of  religions,  we 
find  that  they  are  always  associated  with  one 
powerful  mind  :  a  mind  which  interprets  the 
inarticulate  aspirations  and  desires  of  a  race 
or  a  nation  and  formulates  them  into  a  series 
of  rules  which,  in  order  that  their  value  may  not 
be  doubted,  are  ascribed  to  some  supernatural 
source.  Around  such  personalities  it  is  but 
natural  that  numerous  legends  should  grow 
up,  not  only  rendering  the  theologian's 
path  more  difficult,  but  leading  many  critics, 
particularly  Germans,  to  incline  to  the  belief 
that  such  personages  did  not  exist  at  all, 
but  were  merely  the  assumptions  of  daring 
poets  and  soothsayers  endeavouring  to  explain 
the  origin  of  their  faith.  Another  common 
characteristic  of  such  great  teachers  is  the 
fact  that,  while  history  has  with  more  or 
less  accuracy  recorded  their  performances  and 
sayings  in  middle  and  later  life,  we  find  very 
little  material  dealing  with  their  youth.  The 


io       RELIGIONS  AND  PHILOSOPHIES 

critics  are  rapidly  becoming  fewer  in  number, 
however,  who  hold  that  this  very  fact  is 
sufficient  to  confirm  the  theory  that  all  these 
great  teachers  were  made  and  not  born.  In 
regard  to  the  Buddha,  for  example,  the  tales 
about  his  youth  are  purely  traditional :  he 
only  really  comes  into  prominence  at  twenty- 
nine  or  thirty.  The  same  remark  applies  to 
Moses,  to  Zarathustra,  to  Mohammed,  and, 
in  a  lesser  degree,  to  Christ.  But  it  is  surely 
evident  that  men  like  these  would  not  be 
likely  to  come  into  much  prominence  in  youth, 
and  history  would  not  need  to  consider  them 
at  such  a  time. 


CHAPTER   II 

The  Aryans — Early  wanderings — Brahma — Aryan  and 
Semitic  mythology — The  caste  system — The  Aryans 
in  Europe — The  priestly  caste — Early  Brahmanical 
writings — Law  codes — The  Vedas — Literary  de- 
velopment— Gods. 

THE  remote  antiquity  of  the  Aryan  language 
has  already  been  referred  to.  In  regard 
to  the  tribe  itself  the  direct  evidence  now 
at  our  disposal  is  scanty,  and  it  is  only 
by  the  patient  investigations  of  various 
scientists,  assisted  by  the  recent  progress  in 
the  applications  of  psychological  principles  to 
historical  affairs,  that  we  have  been  able  to 
trace  the  probable  development  of  the  Aryans. 
No  doubt,  however,  remains  as  to  the  descent 
of  the  fair-skinned  tribes  from  the  Pamir 
plateau  into  the  lower  plains  of  India  and 
the  great  empire  which  they  succeeded  in 
founding  there.  Racial  pride  naturally  raised 
a  barrier  between  these  conquerors  and  the 
aborigines  whom  they  subdued,  another 
barrier  separating  the  ruling  nobles  from  the 
lower  classes  of  the  tribes,  and  in  the  course 
of  time  the  priestly  caste  managed,  after  many 


ii 


12  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

generations  of  bitter  controversy  and  struggle, 
to  secure  the  supreme  spiritual  power.  Thus 
the  insurmountable,  or  almost  insurmountable, 
barriers  of  caste  gradually  came  into  being, 
and  upon  them  the  religious  order  of  the 
community  was  based. 

Philological  and  ethnological  discoveries  have 
led  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Englishman  and 
the  Hindoo  had  a  common  ancestor,  the 
one  belonging  to  the  Eastern  and  the  other 
to  the  Western  branch  of  the  Aryan  race.  It 
is  probable,  in  view  of  the  length  of  time 
which  it  is  calculated  a  race  needs  in  order 
to  develop,  that  the  Aryans  cannot  have 
originated  much  less  than  60,000  years  ago 
in  the  territory  which  we  now  know  as  Persia, 
Afghanistan,  and  Asia  Minor.  Generations 
afterwards  the  increased  population  would 
have  overspread  all  North-western  India  and 
probably  encroached  upon  what  is  now  known 
as  the  Punjab.  Then  would  naturally  begin 
the  descent  of  the  warriors  upon  Middle  and 
Southern  India,  while  the  western  division 
of  the  huge  tribe  would  be  making  its  way 
through  Southern  Russia  into  what  is  now 
Poland  and  Austria.  After  centuries  of 
residence  in  the  different  climates,  the  de- 
scendants of  the  original  stock  would  become 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         13 

entirely  unlike  their  forbears,  and  thousands 
of  years  after  their  first  wanderings  it  is  left 
to  the  philologist  to  put  words  and  fragments 
of  words  together  and  gradually  trace  back 
the  prehistoric  origin  of  the  race.  Thus,  in 
the  Rig-Veda  (a  book,  the  contents  of  which 
will  be  explained  later  in  this  chapter),  we 
find  the  chief  of  a  tribe  referred  to  as  "  vis- 
pati,"  i.e.,  "  ruler  of  settlers/*  the  same  meaning 
being  seen  in  the  old  Persian  c<  vis-paiti,"  and 
also  in  the  modern  Lithuanian  cc  wiez-patis," 
one  of  the  numerous  links  which  establishes 
the  connection  between  East  and  West. 

As  an  Indian  writer  has  pointed  out,1  the 
Hindoos  alone,  of  all  the  Aryan-speaking 
peoples,  seem  to  have  preserved  some  recollec- 
tion of  having  been  foreign  settlers  in  the 
country  of  their  adoption.  Few  nations  forgot 
their  origin  sooner  than  did  the  Greeks,  who 
considered  themselves  as  the  original  inhabitants 
of  the  Hellenic  peninsula,  although  they  un- 
consciously preserved  some  traditions  which 
suffice  to  indicate  their  foreign  origin,  as  a 
reference  to  Homer  and  the  famous  catalogue 
of  ships  will  show.  The  mythological  account 
of  the  war  between  gods  and  demons  is 
common  to  all  the  Aryan  nations,  and  the 

1  M.  Venkata  Ratnam  :  The  Hebrew  Origin  of  the  Brahmins. 


14  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

Greek  legend  of  the  war  between  the  Titans  and 
the  gods  is  paralleled  in  Indian  mythology  by 
the  tales  of  the  conflicts  between  the  Suras 
and  the  Asuras,  i.e.,  between  the  gods  and 
the  demons,  which  is  described  in  the  earliest 
remnants  of  Indian  literature  we  possess.  The 
Trojan  war,  again,  is  but  the  legendary  Greek 
version  of  the  struggle  described  in  the 
Ramayana. 

Undoubtedly  one  of  the  halting-places  of 
the  Aryans  on  their  journey  towards  the  East 
was  Meru  (modern  Merv)  in  Turkestan,  which 
occupies  much  the  same  place  in  Hindoo 
mythology  as  does  Olympus  in  the  case  of  the 
Greeks.  The  researches  of  Prof.  Sayce  and 
other  eminent  investigators  in  this  field  have 
thrown  much  light  on  the  relation  of  Assyria 
to  the  Aryans  ;  but  a  discussion  of  this  ques- 
tion belongs  more  to  a  purely  ethnological 
work.  There  is  no  doubt  that  this  part  of 
Western  Asia  bore  the  seeds  from  which  sprang 
every  religion  on  the  face  of  the  earth  ;  but  to 
so  great  an  extent  did  the  travelling  Aryans 
split  up  into  different  nations  and  religious 
groups,  that  an  extended  enquiry  into  the 
common  origin  of  their  faiths  would  be  of 
little  value  for  an  interpretation  of  their 
subsequent  development. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         15 

As  for  Brahma  himself,  who  gave  his  name 
to  the  religion  of  the  Hindoos,  there  seems  to 
be  good  reason  for  supposing  that  the  name 
originally  referred  to  the  Biblical  Abraham. 
While  the  modern  Hindoo  looks  upon  Brahma, 
plus  Krishna,  as  "  God/'  and,  the  Eastern  mind 
naturally  running  to  pantheism,  sees  "  Brahma  " 
in  everything,  the  ancient  Hindoos  regarded 
Brahma  as  the  Greeks  did  Zeus  (Jupiter),  as 
a  being  possessing  a  human  form.  It  has  been 
pointed  out  that  a  comparison  of  the  legend 
concerning  Zeus  and  Brahma  tends  to  show  that 
they  were  one  and  the  same  person,  the  western 
branch  of  the  Aryans  taking  the  legend  with 
them  to  Greece,  and  the  ancestors  of  the 
Hindoos  bearing  it  towards  India.  Zeus,  the 
king  of  the  gods,  married  his  sister  Hera  and 
made  her  queen.  Brahma,  according  to  the 
old  Sanskrit  chronicle,  married  his  daughter 
Sarasvati.  Compare  this  with  the  old  Jewish 
legend  (Gen.  xix.  33-38).  Again,  the  word 
Brahman  comes  from  the  root  brih,  meaning 
to  increase,  while  Abraham  would  appear  to 
signify  "father  of  a  multitude."  Brahma 
(masculine)  was  at  first  Brahmam  (neuter),  which 
to  some  extent  parallels  the  Biblical  statement 
that  Abraham's  name  was  at  first  Abram,  <c  the 
high  father."  Abraham,  too,  was  the  "  Father 


16  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

of  the  Israelites,"  and  Brahma  is  often  referred 
to  as  Pitra-maha,  "the  great  father/'  (Cf. 
Jupiter,  which  is  made  up  of  Jovis  plus  pater.) 
Finally,  the  name  of  Brahma's  wife,  Sarasvati, 
was  originally  written  Sarada,  from  the  same 
root  as  the  name  of  Abraham's  wife,  Sarah. 
Other  analogies  could  readily  be  quoted,  but 
these  will  be  sufficient  to  show  the  reader  the 
close  connection  between  the  Greeks,  the 
Semites,  and  the  Hindoos. 

Thousands  of  years  before  the  Christian  era 
the  Aryans  developed  their  wandering  instinct 
already  referred  to  ;  and  it  is  recorded  that 
when  the  tribes  moved  from  place  to  place 
they  invariably  drove  their  cattle  with  them. 
From  time  immemorial  the  cow  has  been 
considered  as  sacred  in  India,  doubtless  because 
to  it  was  largely  due  the  prosperity  of  the 
white-skinned  invaders.  Strangely  enough, 
the  early  settlers,  as  we  can  see  from  references 
in  the  sacred  books,  ate  meat  and  drank  a 
liquid  resembling  beer,  contrary  to  the  modern 
practice.  The  vitality  of  the  Hindoo  seemed 
to  leave  him  when  he  gave  up  his  meat  for  rice. 
Little  by  little  the  Aryans  made  their  way  east 
of  the  Indus,  through  the  Punjab,  and  into  the 
central  plains.  This  was  a  slow  process,  and 
during  the  time  it  was  proceeding  whole  nations 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         17 

had  sprung  up  from  among  the  original  tribe 
of  invaders.  A  similar  development  was  going 
on  in  the  West,  where  the  Aryans  gradually 
became  the  ruling  castes  throughout  Europe  ; 
but  a  survey  of  this  long  and  complicated 
process  would  be  rather  out  of  place  in  the 
present  work. 

It  may  be  interesting,  however,  to  mention 
one  point.  It  has  virtually  been  established, 
for  instance,  that  the  present  upper  or 
governing  classes  throughout  Europe  are  the 
descendants  of  the  invading  western  Aryans, 
the  menials  (i.e.,  the  so-called  "  working " 
classes)  being  the  descendants  of  the  uncivilised 
and  ill-developed  aborigines.  The  caste  system 
did  not  develop  in  Europe  to  the  same  extent 
as  in  Asia,  and  not  even  feudalism  could  prevent 
constant  intermarrying  between  the  Aryans  and 
the  natives.  The  result  is  that  at  this  day  the 
two  races,  the  higher  and  the  lower,  appear  to 
the  superficial  eye  to  have  fused,  more  especially 
as  common  advantages  and  necessities  have 
long  since  developed  what,  for  want  of  a  better 
term,  we  may  call  a  semi-instinct,  "  patriotism/' 
Nevertheless,  when  great  moral  (not  political) 
crises  occur,  the  difference  between  the  high 
and  low  races  becomes  apparent.  Christianity, 
for  instance,  was  seized  upon  by  the  lower 


i8  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

classes  with  delirious  joy  at  the  time  of  its 
introduction  into  Europe  as  an  excuse  for 
rendering  themselves  morally  independent  of 
their  rulers.  The  process  of  weakening  the 
power  of  the  strong  by  every  conceivable  means 
has  proceeded  steadily  for  nineteen  hundred 
years,  and  is  fast  reaching  its  culminating  point. 
The  less-developed  masses,  that  is  to  say,  the 
lower  castes  of  northern  European  countries, 
cannot  understand  or  appreciate  beauty,  though, 
as  Nietzsche  indicated,  the  world  can  be 
justified  only  as  an  aesthetic  phenomenon. 
Hence,  as  early  Christianity  had  fortunately 
borrowed  many  beautiful  symbols  from 
paganism  (many  of  which  may  be  seen  in  the 
modern  Roman  Catholic  Church),  these 
barbarously-minded  people  made  several 
attempts  to  deprive  the  religion  of  its  beauty, 
since  beauty  can  be  understood  and  created 
only  by  the  aristocratic  castes,  though  it  may 
be  highly  valued  by  lower  castes  which  have 
come  through  a  long  period  of  evolution,  such, 
for  example,  as  are  to  be  found  in  Italy  and 
France.  The  result  was  Huss,  the  Lollards, 
Luther,  and  the  "  Reformation."  Happily,  the 
aristocratic  Church  of  England  was  left  unin- 
fluenced, so  far  as  its  symbols  were  concerned, 
though  a  few  unimportant  changes  were  made 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         19 

in  its  dogma.  But  the  Lutheran  Church, 
which,  in  Germany,  corresponds  to  the 
Dissenters  in  England  and  Scotland,  spread  an 
appalling,  thick  blanket  of  dreariness,  ignorance, 
and  bigotry  over  millions  of  Europeans  which 
subsists  to  this  day.  The  consequence  has 
been  an  endeavour  to  carry  into  practice  the 
extreme  tenets  interpolated  into  the  New 
Testament  by  the  Essene  and  Ebionite  sects  ; 
hence  in  Teutonic  countries  we  see  beauty  disre- 
garded and  even  looked  on  with  suspicion,  the 
dissemination  of  the  most  ridiculous  of  modern 
movements,  humanitarianism,  which  would 
almost1  compel  man  by  law  to  be  responsible 
for  his  neighbour,  socialism,  and  the  pampering 
of  the  lower  classes  to  the  detriment  of  the 
higher  castes. 

To  return  to  our  Hindoo  brethren,  we  find 
the  single  race  of  Aryans  separated  in  the 
course  of  time  into  distinct  nations,  but  always 
preserving  the  essential  characteristic  of  caste  : 
first,  the  priests,  or  Brahmans  ;  secondly,  the 
nobles  and  warriors,  known  in  ancient  times 
as  the  Kshatriyas,  and  at  present  as  Rajputs  ; 
thirdly,  the  husbandmen  and  merchants  ;  and, 
fourthly,  the  lowest  caste,  the  Sudras,  who 
formed  the  descendants  of  the  conquered 
aborigines.  They  are  often  referred  to  in 


20  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

the  Brahmanical  writings   by  many   contemp- 
tuous epithets. 

The  priesthood  was  the  last  of  the  castes  to 
be  formed.  In  very  early  times,  indeed,  we 
can  easily  see  from  passages  in  the  Rig-Veda 
that  the  caste  system  was  almost  unknown. 
The  warrior  is  naturally  separated  from  his 
dependents  and  servants  ;  but  the  head  of  each 
family  acted  as  his  own  priest.  In  later  times 
the  ruler  of  a  tribe  would  perhaps  select  some 
person  of  great  Vedic  learning  to  prepare  a 
sacrifice  to  the  local  god,  and  in  time  such 
men  came  to  form  an  important  section  of  a 
warrior's  retinue.  Years  afterwards,  by  their 
appropriation  of  the  sacred  books  and  the 
increase  in  their  numbers^  they  endeavoured  to 
arrogate  to  themselves  the  supreme  power  in 
the  Aryan  community.  But  this  pretension  was 
at  once  disputed  by  the  warrior  caste,  and  a 
long  struggle  ensued  for  the  mastery.  Dr 
Sera  has  concisely  summed  up  this  warfare  : — 

The  primitive  relationships  between  masters  and 
servants  were  those  which  necessitated  muscular  and 
brute  force,  and  violent  physical  superiority,  for  it  was 
precisely  by  their  physical  supremacy  and  warlike  gifts 
that  aristocrats  arose.  The  share  of  intelligence  in 
mastering  men  began  with  the  rise  to  power  of  the  clergy. 
It  may  even  be  said  that  the  clergy  were  the  first  thinkers, 
and  as  such  were  at  first  reviled  by  the  strong  men  and 
the  warriors.  .  .  .  The  clergy,  however,  with  their 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         21 

cunning,  their  indirect  and  equivocal  manners,  and  the 
seduction  of  their  spirituality,  knew  how  to  possess  them- 
selves of  power  as  well  as  the  fierce  aristocrats,  by  whom, 
although  at  first  looked  upon  with  suspicion,  they  were  at 
length  considered  almost  as  equals.  The  succession  of  these 
stages  appears  to  be  an  inherent  rhythm  in  human  society, 
and  the  effect  of  laws  which  are  to  be  found  identically 
the  same  almost  everywhere,  for  we  observe  the  same 
phenomena  in  the  East  and  particularly  in  India.  Thus 
Indian  tradition  speaks  of  a  terrible  battle  which  took  place 
between  the  Brahmans — the  higher  orders  of  the  clergy — 
and  the  ancient  race  of  warriors,  although  both  classes  sprang 
from  the  nation  of  Aryan  conquerors  which  descended  into 
India  and  there  founded  their  civilisation.  What  is  even 
more  noteworthy  is  that  this  battle  between  the  religious 
and  aristocratic  classes  ended  in  the  defeat,  even  in  the 
annihilation,  of  the  latter  ;  but  after  a  short  time  the  priests 
saw  that  they  had  committed  a  grave  error,  and  were  com- 
pelled to  gather  together  the  bastard  lines  of  the  ancient 
stock  to  save  Indian  society  from  utter  dissolution.1 

Having  laid  claim  to  religion  and  philosophy 
as  their  special  subjects,  the  Brahmans  lost  no 
time  in  securing  their  social  supremacy  by  law. 
Early  legal  Brahmanical  writings  are  found  in 
the  Vedas  ;  and  about  400  B.C.  and  200  A.D. 
they  formulated  their  code  of  laws  in  two 
great  digests,  upon  which  all  later  Hindoo 
jurisprudence  has  been  founded.  The  first  of 
these  is  the  law  book  of  Manu,  and  shows  us 
the  social  organisation  of  the  Brahmans  shortly 
after  their  supremacy  in  the  community  had  been 
undisputedly  made  to  prevail.  The  Brahmans, 

1  Dr  L,  G.  Sera  ;  On  the  Tracks  of  Life,  chap,  ix, 


22  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

indeed,  claimed  Divine  origin  for  these  laws, 
and  ascribed  their  written  form  to  Manu,  the  first 
Aryan  man,  who  had  lived  some  30,000,000 
years  before.  In  reality,  however,  the  laws  of 
Manu  are  but  an  attempted  codification  of 
the  customs  of  the  Brahmans  in  Northern  India, 
handed  down  orally  through  generations,  and 
finally  condensed  into  a  written  form. 

The  second  great  digest  is  that  of  Yajna- 
valkya.  It  represents  the  legal  side  of  the 
great  controversy  between  Brahmanism  and 
Buddhism,  when  the  latter  faith  had  dislodged 
the  former  in  many  parts  of  India. 

In  both  codes  we  find  three  great  divisions 
ofjjiadoojaw.  The  first  applies  to  djomestic 
matters  and  the  righits  and  duties  of  the 
various  castes ;  the  second  relates  to  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice ;  and  the third  to 

religious  observances.  It  is  obvious  that  the 
Brahmans,  although  professing  to  codify  cer- 
tain hitherto  unwritten  usages  of  the  race, 
took  care  to  carry  out  the  task  in  such  a  way 
as  to  assure  their  own  predominance.  The 
exact  boundaries  of  the  castes  are  clearly 
specified.  Each  has  certain  hereditary  duties 
allotted  to  it,  and  intermarriage  between  them 
is  prohibited.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add 
that  the  Brahmans  reserve  for  their  own  caste 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         23 

the  sole  spiritual  power  in  the  commonwealth. 
Nevertheless,  from  the  penalties  prescribed  in 
the  codes,  it  is  apparent  that  even  in  early 
times  there  were  illicit  connections  between  the 
castes  by  marriage.  Provision  is  also  made 
for  "  mixed  "  castes  and  tribes,  so  that  the  four 
great  divisions — Brahmans,  warriors,  husband- 
men, serfs — occasionally  encroached  upon  one 
another.  The  lowest  caste,  or  Sudras,  hope- 
lessly cowed  down  for  generations,  never  made 
any  attempt  to  rise  from  its  state  of  servitude  ; 
but  there  appear  to  be  many  instances  of 
courageous  and  wealthy  men  of  the  third  caste 
becoming  members  of  the  warrior  caste,  and 
it  would  likewise  seem  that  the  Brahmans 
occasionally  admitted  recruits  from  the  warrior 
caste  immediately  below  them.  The  Brahmans 
owed  their  constantly  increasing  power  to  the 
fact  that  they  not  only  held  the  sacred  books  of 
the  race,  but,  in  addition,  monopolised  philo- 
sophy and  science.  For  centuries  they  were 
the  only  teachers,  and  even  the  secular  or  f '  pro- 
fane "  literature  had  its  origin  among  them. 

It  must  not  be  assumed  that  the  English 
occupation  of  India  and  the  consequent  different 
trend  given  to  education,  or  the  Buddhistic 
conquest  a  century  or  so  before  the  Christian 
era,  had  any  effect  in  undermining  the  authority 


24  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

of  the    Brahmans.     Their    power  was  succes- 
sively assailed  by  the  rise   of  the    Buddhists, 
the  Greek  invasion,  the  Mohammedan  invasion, 
and  the  English  occupation,  but  it  was  never 
altogether  taken  away  from  them.     Buddhism, 
as  will  be  seen  in  another  chapter,  was  at  one 
time    spread    throughout    India,    but,    as    its 
missionaries  gradually  made  their  way  further 
afield — to  Thibet,  China,  Burmah,  and  Japan 
— their  faith  seemed  to  leave  India  with  them, 
and  Brahmanism  regained  the  ascendency  which 
it  still  holds.     True,  Buddhism  left  its  traces, 
and  modern  Hinduism  is  partly  an  amalgama- 
tion of  both  religions,  but  the  essential  principles 
of  the  Brahmanical  learning  are  still  respected 
and  followed.     And  this  long-enduring  power 
is  chiefly  the  result  of  the  plasticity  of  the  law 
codes,  and  the  subtlety  with  which  the  priests 
applied   them.     As   the    Brahmans   multiplied 
and    moved  with   the  other  divisions  of  the 
tribes   throughout    India,    they  brought  their 
codes  with  them  and  established  them  on  the 
conquered  nations  in  much  the  same  way  as 
the  Romans  established  not  only  their  laws  but 
their  language  also.     In  many  instances,  how- 
ever, it  was  found  necessary  to  adapt  the  formal 
digest  to  suit  local  conditions,  and  the  codes 
fortunately  lent  themselves  to  such  changes. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST          25 

The  collected  writings  of  the  Brahmans,  the 
substance  of  which  was  handed  down  verbally 
from  generation  to  generation,  appear  to  date, 
in  their  written  form,  from  about  3000  B.C. 
Although,  of  course,  gradually  compiled, 
memorised,  and  written  down  by  the  priests 
in  the  first  instance,  later  generations  came  to 
look  upon  them  as  directly  inspired  by  the 
gods,  nor  is  this  the  only  comparison  which 
can  be  made  between  the  writings  of  the 
Brahmans  and  the  Old  Testament.  To  all 
these  Hindoo  scriptures  is  applied  the  collec- 
tive name  Veda  (knowledge)  or,  less  commonly, 
Sruti  (revelation).  The  collections  (Sanhitas) 
of  sacred  writings  (Mantras)  comprise  (i)  the 
Rig-Veda,  (2)  the  Saman  or  Samaveda,  (3)  the 
Yajush  or  Yajurveda,  (4)  the  Atharvan  or 
Atharvaveda.  To  each  of  these  text-books 
or  manuals  of  religion  is  attached  a  series  of 
prose  works  (Brahmanas),  the  aim  of  which  is 
to  explain  the  text-books  and  the  nature  of  the 
sacrificial  rites  mentioned  in  them.  In  some 
cases  two  much  more  modern  commentaries 
are  added,  the  Aranyakas  and  the  Upanishads. 
The  Aranyakas  do  little  more  than  supple- 
ment the  Brahmanas  in  a  few  points  of  little 
interest  to  Europeans,  but  the  Upanishads 
are  of  somewhat  greater  value  to  us,  since  in 


26  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

them  we  find  the  fruits  of  early  Indian  specu- 
lation on  the  problems  of  the  universe.  The 
Saman  and  the  Yajush,  dealing  mainly  with 
matters  of  ritual,  and  containing  many  quota- 
tions from  the  Rig-Veda,  are  of  small  importance 
to  all  but  earnest  theologians. 

The  hymns  of  the  Rig- Veda,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  of  very  great  value.  By  a  careful 
comparison  of  the  different  divisions  of  this 
work,  philologists  have  shown  conclusively  that 
the  interval  between  the  writing  of  the  first 
poem  and  the  writing  of  the  last  cannot  be 
much  less  than  1000  years.  The  actual  date 
of  the  composition  of  the  poems,  however,  is 
a  question  which  it  is  now  practically  impossible 
to  answer.  They  were  handed  down  from 
father  to  son,  from  warrior  to  warrior,  from 
Brahman  to  Brahman,  for  many  generations, 
and  they  serve  to  a  great  extent  to  show  us, 
in  view  of  their  descriptive  passages,  the  routes 
taken  by  the  Aryans  in  their  wanderings 
throughout  India.  An  analysis  of  the  Iliad  and 
Odyssey  is  simplicity  itself  as  compared  with 
an  analysis  of  the  Rig-Veda.  It  is  easier  to 
ascertain  who  wrote  the  Pentateuch  than  to 
find  out  who,  at  various  times  and  places,  drew 
up  the  Hindoo  scriptures. 

The  period  of  Indian  history  represented  by 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         27 

/ 

the  Vedas  is  the  period  of  conquest,  and 
corresponds  in  point  of  time  to  the  invasion  of 
the  Aryans  and  the  beginning  of  their  long 
march  through  the  Indian  continent,  until  at 
last  the  tribes  settled  down  in  various  districts. 
The  Rig-Veda  speaks  of  the  natives  of  India 
as  Dasyrus,  calling  them  "  bull-faced  "  men, 
almost  noseless,  and  with  very  short  arms. 
These  aborigines  were  probably  allied  ethno- 
logically  to  the  Mongolians :  in  the  first  place 
they  were  yellow-skinned  ; *  and  in  the  second 
they  possessed  the  Chinese  characteristic  of 
never  having  evolved  the  idea  of  a  God.  This 
is  a  distinct  trait  of  the  yellow  races,  and  it  is 
seen  in  the  success  which  Buddhism  met  with 
in  China  and  Japan  ;  for  Buddha,  too,  makes 
no  mention  of  God,  and  the  Chinese  philo- 
sophers contented  themselves  with  building 
up  a  system  of  morals  on  a  purely  rationalistic 
basis. 

With  people  like  these,  it  was  but  natural 
that  the  Aryans  should  have  nothing  to  do. 
The  white  conquerors  were  proud  of  their 
intellectual  and  physical  superiority,  and  to 
such  an  extent  did  they  leave  their  traces  on 
India  that,  for  sixty  centuries,  down  to  the 

1  A  few  of  the  northern  aboriginal  tribes  seem  to  have  bee|K«f  a 
yellowish-black  colour  ;  in  the  centre  and  south  they  were  quite  yellow. 


28  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

present  day,  we  find  that  the  word  Arya  always 
connotes  nobleness  and  pre-eminence.  It  re- 
appears— another  tribute  to  the  spread  of  the 
race — in  the  German  Ehre  (honour,  nobleness), 
which  forms  part  of  the  name  of  the  German 
warrior  whom  the  Romans  found  so  redoubt- 
able an  antagonist,  Arminius,  i.e.,  Ehrmann,  a 
man  of  honour.  The  Aryans,  not  being 
afflicted  with  the  Christian  disease  of  humility, 
which  is  philosophically  a  sin  and  riot  a  virtue, 
made  no  secret  of  the  fact  that  they  looked 
upon  themselves  as  the  salt  of  the  earth  far 
excellence.  "  The  Pure,"  "  the  White  Race," 
"the  Sons  of  Light/'  "  the  Noble  Ones,"  are 
a  few  of  the  terms  by  which  they  designated 
themselves,  as  we  see  by  the  literary  works 
which  have  come  down  to  us. 

When  we  come  to  analyse  the  hymns,  we 
find  that  the  poetry  of  the  Rig- Veda  deals  to 
a  great  extent  with  the  ordinary  life  of  the 
Aryans  themselves.  But,  besides  the  recital 
of  material  facts,  these  works  present  us  with  a 
mass  of  symbolic  conceptions.  We  find  in  the 
Rig-Veda  a  description  of  the  places  where  the 
hymns  were  first  sung  (an  invaluable  guide  in 
tracing  the  progress  of  the  race),  stories  of 
natural  phenomena,  of  the  march  of  the  con- 
querors through  India,  in  spite  of  the  resistance 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST        29 

of  the  aborigines,  of  birth,  marriage,  death 
and  burial ;  and  a  fairly  complete  account  of 
the  Brahman  cultus.  We  learn  that  the 
primitive  Aryans  lived  under  patriarchal  rule, 
that  they  did  not  build  towns,  but  led  a 
wandering  life  with  their  herds  of  cattle,  and 
that  in  times  of  danger  they  combined  their 
forces  to  repel  any  common  enemy.  The 
father  was  the  master  of  the  household,  his 
wife  was  his  property  :  there  was  most  de- 
cidedly no  trace  of  a  women's  suffrage  move- 
ment, and  there  were  no  4f  rights  of  man." 
The  caste  system  had  not  developed  to  a  very 
large  extent  when  the  early  poems  of  the  Rig- 
Veda  were  being  written,  and  the  head  of  the 
family  was  likewise  its  priest. 

The  form  of  worship  was  simple  enough. 
Two  pieces  of  wood  were  rubbed  together  ;  a 
fire  was  lighted  ;  and  a  sacrifice  of  malted  liquor 
and  bread  was  offered  up  on  a  rude  altar.  This 
simple  ceremony  was  performed  thrice  daily — 
at  sunrise,  noon,  and  sunset.  The  Vedas  in- 
dicate that  for  a  long  time  the  Aryans  possessed 
a  kind  of  naturalistic  religion  which  confined 
itself  to  invoking  the  forces  of  Nature  :  in  other 
words,  they  were  polytheists.  Fire  was  wor- 
shipped under  the  name  of  Agni  (observe  the 
close  connection  with  the  Latin  ignis),  the  sky 


30  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

was  adored  as  Indra  (the  god  of  rain),  the  sun 
as  Surya,  water  as  Varuna.  For  the  Aryans 
the  hymn  was  always  a  prayer.  "  It  would 
appear/'  says  the  great  Orientalist,  Emile 
Burnouf,  "  that  the  prayer  uttered  from  their 
hearts,  of  which  the  hymn  was  the  outward 
expression,  not  only  exercised  its  action  on  the 
variable  movements  of  the  rain  and  winds,  but 
even  accompanied  and  brought  about  the  most 
constant  and  regulated  natural  phenomena." 
Lafont  compares  this  with  the  Christian 
"rogations,"  and  is  not  alone  in  thinking 
that  they  spring  from  the  same  belief. 

"  Our  ancestors  moulded  the  forms  of  the 
gods  as  the  workman  fashions  a  piece  of  iron," 
we  read  in  the  Vamadeva,  startlingly  clear  proof, 
which  the  Brahmans  afterwards  kept  out  of 
sight  as  much  as  possible,  of  the  terrestrial  and 
non-supernatural  origin  of  the  gods  and  the 
god-idea.  During  long  centuries,  Vedism,  to 
use  the  term  now  generally  applied  to  the 
religion  of  the  Vedas,  slowly  developed  into  a 
more  deeply  metaphysical  faith  and  finally  into 
Brahmanism.  The  great  distinction  is  the 
fact  that  in  time  it  came  to  be  recognised  that, 
in  addition  to  a  number  of  inferior  deities, 
there  was  one  supreme  god,  Brahma,  and  all 
Indian  polytheism  was  sublimated  in  him. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         31 

The  Indian  mind,  however,  could  not  conceive 
of  a  single  omnipotent  god  such  as  the  Semitic 
Jehovah,  and  it  was  not  long  before  the  one 
superior  Hindoo  deity  became  pantheistic. 
Brahma  was  seen  in  everything — in  an  idol,  in 
a  tree,  in  a  sword.  The  one  great  step  had 
been  taken  in  the  development  of  Hinduism  : 
there  was  one  recognised  god,  Brahma,  where 
there  had  formerly  been  twenty,  and  the  highest 
caste,  the  Brahmans,  were  his  interpreters  and 
the  keepers  of  his  sacred  books.  With  this 
conception  once  definitely  established,  there 
began  a  magnificent  period  of  development. 
From  this  epoch,  the  beginnings  of  which  may 
safely  be  placed  at  3000  B.C.,  we  have  the 
splendid  poems  of  the  Mahabharata  and  the 
Ramayana  ;  the  lore  of  centuries,  including 
the  Vedic  hymns,  was  put  into  written  form  ; 
laws  were  coded  ;  the  Indian  drama  was  slowly 
formed,  and  a  school  of  lyric  poetry  arose. 

This  great  literary  development  was  only 
possible,  of  course,  when  the  intellectual  power 
of  the  community  was  concentrated  in  the 
Brahmans,  and  to  some  extent  also  the 
warriors.  The  first  two  castes,  even  though 
weighed  down  under  the  load  of  a  nihilistic 
religion,  were  able  to  display  their  creative 
faculty  in  spite  of  their  pessimism,  while  the 


32  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

lower  castes  had  no  right  to  an  opinion  on 
any  subject  at  all.  The  Brahmans  recognised 
clearly  enough  that,  no  matter  how  the  lower 
classes  of  a  society  were  "  educated  "  in  what 
would  correspond  to  a  modern  board-school, 
they  were  unable,  on  account  of  their  low 
descent  (like  our  own  lower  classes)  to  enter 
into  the  lofty  spirit  of  the  nobler  castes.  To  a 
modern  philosophical  enquirer,  unbiassed  by 
democratic  heresies,  this  was  a  right  and 
proper  course  to  pursue  ;  for  there  is  no 
reason  why  the  children  of  the  working-classes 
(the  modern  serf  caste)  should  be  provided 
with  free  schools  in  which  to  acquire  an  ex- 
ceedingly superficial  knowledge  of  subjects 
that  will  never  be  of  the  slightest  use  to  them 
in  their  journey  through  the  world.  The 
modern  school  of  continental  thought  clearly 
recognises  that  the  world  has  only  one  real 
"  use "  for  the  serf  caste,  whether  they  are 
plainly  called  serfs  or  disguise  themselves  as 
"  noble  sons  of  toil,"  or  "  honest  workmen," 
and  that  is  that  they  shall  be  employed  as 
the  basis  of  servitude  upon  which  a  noble  and 
aristocratic  culture  may  be  founded.  The 
Brahmans  saw  this,  so  did  the  pre-Platonic 
philosophers,  and  so  also  did  Aristotle.  The 
final  touch  of  modern  anarchy  is  shown  by  the 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         33 

fact  that  in  the  "  civilised "  countries  of  the 
West  the  dregs  of  society  are  permitted  to  rule 
:he  whole  community ;  for  the  principle  of 
government  is  one  man  one  vote,  and  it  follows 
that  the  uneducated  riff-raff  must  inevitably 
outnumber  the  cultured  few.  Parasites  are 
ilways  fecund.  Little  wonder  that  the  better- 
educated  classes  of  Indians  protest  emphatically 
igainst  the  introduction  of  these  revolutionary 
rorms  of  government  into  their  country,  and 
:hat  the  Chinese  and  Japanese  look  with 
ustifiable  suspicion  on  all  u  foreign  devils/' 


In  dealing  with  Hinduism  or  Brahmanism  it 
,s  almost  an  impossible  task  to  disentangle  and 
to  bring  into  some  sort  of  order  the  confused 
mass  of  Indian  gods,  demons,  deified  mortals, 
household  gods,  local  gods,  tribal  gods,  and  so 
Dn.  Theoretically  a  Hindoo  is  one  who 
believes  in  the  Brahmanic  scriptures  as  ex- 
pounded for  centuries  by  the  Brahmans.  This 
teaching  was  influenced  to  some  extent  by 
Buddhism  and  later  on  by  Mohammedanism, 
not  to  speak  of  the  natural  changes  which  one 
would  expect  to  find  in  any  religion  which  had 
lasted  for  from  four  to  five  thousand  years.  It 

may  be  convenient  to  take  the  three  periods 
c 


34  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

into  which  Hinduism  is  generally  divided,  viz., 
Vedic,  Epic,  and  Puranic.  What  we  know  of 
the  first  period  is  learnt  from  the  Vedas,  of  the 
second  from  the  two  great  epic  poems,  the 
Ramayana  and  the  Mahabharata,  and  of  the 
third  from  certain  theological  works  known  as 
Puranas  or  Tantras.  Amongst  the  numerous 
deities  referred  to  in  the  Vedas  may  be 
mentioned  Agni,  the  god  of  fire,  lightning, 
and  the  sun  ;  Indra,  the  god  of  the  firmament ; 
Varuna,  who  corresponds  in  general  to  the 
Greek  Uranus,  and  Soma,  who  corresponds  to 
Bacchus.  We  also  find  the  Maruts,  or  winds, 
and  Ushas,  the  dawn. 

Besides  being  the  god  of  wine,  Soma  is  also 
the  name  given  to  the  juice  of  the  soma  plant. 
In  the  early  stages  of  Vedism  this  juice  seems 
to  have  been  the  sole  sacrifice  offered  up  by 
the  Aryans,  and  it  has  been  ingeniously  con- 
jectured that,  having  at  first  been  the  object 
with  which  the  deities  were  propitiated,  it  was 
afterwards  deified  itself.  Soma  is  conceived  of 
as  a  powerful  deity  who  inspires  men  to  deeds 
of  arms,  as  well  as  being  the  bestower  of  health, 
and  one  who  assists  his  worshippers  against 
their  enemies  ;  witness  the  Rig-Veda  : 

This  Soma  is  a  god  ;  he  cures 
The  sharpest  ills  that  man  endures. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST        35 

He  heals  the  sick,  the  sad  he  cheers, 
He  nerves  the  weak,  dispels  their  fears, 
The  faint  with  martial  ardour  fires, 
With  lofty  thoughts  the  bard  inspires, 
The  soul  from  earth  to  heaven  he  lifts 
So  great  and  wondrous  are  his  gifts.  x 

While  the  worship  of  Soma  was  associated 
chiefly  with  Bacchanalian  feasts,  a  perusal  of 
the  Vedic  hymns  shows  the  high  state  of 
culture  at  which  even  the  primitive  Aryan 
settlers  in  India  had  arrived,  and  the  researches 
into  the  mysteries  of  the  creation  which  they 
had  begun  to  make.  Take,  for  example,  the 
hymn  from  the  Rig-Veda  addressed  to  Varuna, 
excellently  translated  by  Muir  : 

He,  righteous  Lord,  the  sceptre  wields, 

Supreme,  of  universal  sway  ; 

His  law  both  men  and  gods  obey  ; 
To  his  decree  the  haughtiest  yields. 

He  spread  the  earth  and  water  waste  ; 
He  reared  the  sky,  he  bade  the  sun 
His  shining  circuit  daily  run  ; 

In  him  the  worlds  are  all  embraced.  .  .  . 

The  path  of  ships  across  the  sea, 

A  soaring  eagle's  flight  he  knows, 
The  course  of  every  wind  that  blows, 

And  all  that  was  or  is  to  be.2 

1  J.  Muir  :   Translations  from  the  Fedas. 

2  Muir,  /£/</.,  p.  20,  from  Rig-Veda,  xxv.   7,  9,  1 1.     Cf.  Proverbs 
xxx.  1 8  ff.  :     "  There  are  three  things  which  are  too  wonderful  for 
me.  .   .   .     The  way  of  an  eagle  in  the  air  ;  the  way  of  a  serpent  upon 
a  rock  ;  the  way  of  a  ship  in  the  midst  of  the  sea.   .  .  ." 


36  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

To  thoughtful  men  who  truth  discern, 
And  deeply  things  divine  explore, 
The  god  reveals  his  hidden  lore  ; 

But  fools -his  secrets  may  not  learn. I 

Part  of  the  prose  form  of  this  has  been  given 
by  Petersen,  in  his  selections  from  the  Vedic 
Hymns  : — 

Though  we  break  thy  law  daily,  men  as  we  are,  O 
God  Varuna  : 

Yet  give  us  not  over  to  the  deadly  stroke  of  our  enemy  ; 
give  us  not  over  to  the  wrath  of  our  foe. 

Varuna  knows  the  way  of  the  birds  that  fly  in  the  air  ; 
he  knows  the  way  of  the  ship  on  the  sea  : 2 

He  knows  the  track  of  the  wide,  high,  and  great  wind  :  3 
he  knows  them  that  sit  thereon. 4 

My  prayers  go  up  to  him  like  kine  to  their  pasture- 
lands,  seeking  him  whose  eyes  are  over  all.5 

Come  now  and  let  us  talk  together  :  here  me  call,  O 
Varuna,  and  to-day  have  mercy  on  me  :  I  am  needy,  and 
call  upon  thee.  6 

Rig- Veda  i.  25  (Petersen's  ed.). 

The  same  high  standard  is  maintained  in  the 
hymns  addressed  to  Agni,  the  god  of  fire  : — 

Great  Agni,  though  thine  essence  be  but  one, 

Thy  forms  are  three  ;  as  fire,  thou  blazest  here, 
As  lightning  flashest  in  the  atmosphere, 

In  heaven  thou  flamest  as  the  golden  sun. 

'From  Rig-Veda  7,  Ixi.  5.  Cf.  Matt.  xiii.  11-12,  and  Prov.  xiv.  6  : 
"  A  scorner  seeketh  wisdom  and  findeth  it  not  :  but  knowledge  is  easy 
to  him  that  understandeth." 

2  Cf.  Song  of  Solomon,  v.  10-11,  and  Prov.  xxx.  19. 

3  Cf.  St  John,  iii.  8. 

4C/i  2  Sam.,  xxii.  and  Psalms  civ.  3. 
*Cf.  Psalms,  xlii.  i. 

6Cf.  "Come  now  let  us  reason  together"  (Isaiah  i.  18  ;  Psalms 
xl.  17  ;  and  Psalms  Ixxxvi.  I.) 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         37 

Sprung  from  the  mystic  pair,  by  priestly  hands l 
In  wedlock  joined,  forth  flashes  Agni  bright  ; 
But — oh,  ye  heavens  and  earth,  I  tell  you  right — 

The  unnatural  child  devours  the  parent  brands. 

But  Agni  is  a  god  ;  we  must  not  deem 

That  he  can  err,  or  dare  to  reprehend 

His  acts,  which  far  our  reason's  grasp  transcend ; 

He  best  can  judge  what  deeds  a  god  beseem.2 

Thou  art  the  cord  which  stretches  to  the  skies, 

The  bridge  that  spans  the  chasm,  profound  and  vast, 
Dividing  earth  from  heaven,  o'er  which  at  last 

The  good  shall  safely  pass  to  Paradise. 

No  god,  no  mortal  is  stronger  than  thee,  O  mighty 
Agni  :  Come,  Agni,  with  the  Maruts  (Storm-Gods). 

Bright,  fearful  to  look  upon,  strong  rulers,  devourers  of 
their  foes  :  Come,  Agni,  with  the  Maruts. 

Who  sit  as  gods  in  the  sky  on  the  bright  vault  of 
heaven  :  Come,  Agni,  with  the  Maruts. 

Rig- Veda,  i.  19  ;  (Petersen's  ed.). 

Again,  compare  the  prose  and  poetic  form 
of  the  hymn  to  Ushas,  the  Dawn  : — 

Hail,  Ushas,  daughter  of  the  sky, 

Who,  borne  upon  thy  shining  car, 
By  ruddy  steeds  from  realms  afar, 

And  ever  lightening,  drawest  nigh  : — 

Thou  sweetly  smilest,  goddess  fair, 

Disclosing  all  thy  youthful  grace, 
Thy  bosom  bright,  thy  radiant  face, 

And  lustre  of  thy  golden  hair.  .  . 

1  This  refers  to  the  two  pieces  of  wood  from  which  fire  is  obtained 
when  they  are  rubbed  together.  In  the  Vedas  they  are  represented  as 
husband  and  wife  (Muir's  Note). 

3  A  sentiment  which  may  be  commended  to  all  democrats. 


38  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

But  closely  by  the  amorous  sun 

Pursued  and  vanquished  in  the  race, 
Thou  soon  art  locked  in  his  embrace, 

And  with  him  blendest  into  one. 

(Muir,  Translations  from  the  Vedas,  p.  28.) 

"  Oh,  Ushas,  rich  in  blessing,  wise  and  bountiful,  accept 
the  song  of  thy  worshipper  :  for  now  thou  comest  in  due 
time,  goddess  ever  old,  ever  young,  and  bringest  with 
thee  all  good  things.  Shine  out,  O  Dawn,  a  goddess  and 
immortal,  on  thy  golden  car  ;  awaken  the  sweet  nature 
of  the  birds  :  let  thy  well-managed  horses,  whose  splendour 
spreads  all  around,  bring  thee,  O  golden  goddess,  to  us. 

The  holy  goddess  has  been  awakened  by  the  songs  of 
the  sky,  and  her  glory  spreads  over  the  fruitful  worlds  : 
the  shining  Dawn  is  coming  :  Agni,  go  forth  to  meet  her, 
and  ask  for  us  the  wealth  which  we  desire." 

Rig-Veda,  iii.  6. 

The  powers  of  Indra  are  shown  in  the 
following  : — 

Thou,  Indra,  art  a  friend  and  brother, 
A  kinsman  dear,  a  father,  mother. 
Though  thou  hast  troops  of  friends,  yet  we 
Can  boast  no  other  friend  than  thee.  .  . 
With  faith  we  claim  thine  aid  divine, 
For  thou  art  ours  and  we  are  thine. 
Thou  art  not  deaf  though  far  away, 
Thou  hearest  all,  whate'er  we  pray. 

Ibid.,  pp.  15-16. 

The  fierce  god  who,  so  soon  as  he  was  born  their  chief, 
surpassed  all  the  gods  in  strength,  from  before  whose 
breath  heaven  and  earth  trembled,  he,  O  men,  is  Indra  : 

Who  fixed  fast  the  quivering  earth,  who  made  the 
moving  mountains  rest,  who  measured  out  the  wide  sky, 
who  propped  up  heaven,  he,  O  men,  is  Indra : 

On  Whom  call  heaven  and  earth,  who  are  joined,  and 
all  enemies,  high  and  low :  he,  O  men,  is  Indra : 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         39 

Heaven  and  earth  bow  down  before  him  :  at  his  very 
breath  the  hills  are  in  fear. 

Rig-Veda,  ii.  12  (Petersen's  ed.). 

Beyond  a  doubt,  however,  the  two  most 
exquisite  hymns  in  Vedic  literature  are  those 
dealing  with  the  Origin  of  Things  and  the 
Death  of  the  First  Man,  King  Yama.  The 
first  hymn,  dealing  with  the  creation,  probably 
marks  the  beginning  of  philosophic  Vedism, 
when  the  Hindoos  not  only  worshipped  the 
elementary  powers  of  Nature  but  were  begin- 
ning to  form  conceptions  of  a  Supreme  Deity, 
who,  in  addition  to  having  certain  attributes 
of  his  own,  would  be  powerful  enough  to  rule 
all  the  other  gods. 

There  then  was  neither  Naught  nor  Aught, 

No  air,  no  sky  beyond. 
What  covered  all  ?  where  rested  all  ? 
In  watery  gulf  profound. 

Nor  death  was  then,  nor  deathlessness, 

No  change  of  night  and  day. 
That  One  breathed  calmly,  self-sustained  : 

Naught  else  beyond  It  lay. 

Who  knows,  who  ever  told,  from  whence 

This  great  creation  rose  ? 
No  gods  had  then  been  born — then  who 

Can  e'er  the  tale  disclose  ? 

Whence  sprang  this  world,  and  whether  framed 

By  hand  divine  or  no, — 
Its  Lord  in  Heaven  alone  can  tell — 

If  even  He  can  show.  Muir,  Ibid,,  p.  36. 


40  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

The  second  poem  shows  a  still  later  develop- 
ment :  — 

To  great  King  Yama  homage  pay, 
Who  was  the  first  of  men  that  died, 
That  crossed  the  mighty  gulf  and  spied 

For  mortals  out  the  heavenward  way. 

No  power  can  ever  close  the  road 

Which  he  to  us  laid  open  then, 

By  which  in  long  procession  men 
Ascend  to  his  sublime  abode. 

By  it  our  fathers  all  have  passed  ; 

And  that  same  path  we  too  shall  trace, 

And  every  new  succeeding  race 
Of  mortal  men,  while  time  shall  last  .  .  . 

First  must  each  several  element 

That  joined  to  form  thy  living  frame 
Fly  to  the  regions  whence  it  came, 

And  with  its  parent  source  be  blent. 

Thine  eye  shall  seek  the  solar  orb 
Thy  life  breath  to  the  wind  shall  fly, 
Thy  part  ethereal  to  the  sky  ; 

Thine  earthly  part  shall  earth  absorb. 

Thy  unborn  part  shall  Agni  bright 
With  his  benignant  rays  illume, 
And  guide  it  through  the  trackless  gloom 

To  yonder  sphere  of  life  and  light. 

Muir,  Ibid.,  p.  32. 

The    translator  compares    Euripides  (Supp. 
532/0  : 


'tKoidrov  iig  rb 
'  Evravd'  awtXQsiv,  frvtvpa,  fjt,sv  vpbs  aidtpa, 
Tb  ffua  d'  i/s     qv, 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         41 

(c<  But  each  element  of  the  body  has  departed 
to  the  quarter  whence  it  came,  the  breath  to 
the  other,  the  body  itself  to  the  earth.") 

After  this  we  come  to  the  period  of  the 
Epics  and  Puranic  philosophy.  This  period 
may  be  said  to  witness  the  early  development 
of  the  six  orthodox  systems  of  Indian  Philo- 
sophy, mentioned  in  a  subsequent  chapter,  and 
doubtless  also  the  Bhagavad-Gita,  which  will 
be  referred  to  shortly.  This  period  is  chiefly 
noted  for  the  rise  of  two  gods  to  the  highest 
rank,  viz.,  Vishnu  and  Siva,  who  with  Brahma 
form  the  Hindoo  Tramurit,  or  Triad.  These 
three  gods  are  usually  represented  as  one  body 
with  three  heads.  In  the  middle  is  that  of 
Brahma,  at  its  right  of  Vishnu,  and  at  its  left 
that  of  Siva.  The  symbol  of  this  triad  is  the 
mystic  syllable  OM.  This  is  a  Sanskrit  word 
which  acquired  much  importance  in  the  early 
development  of  the  Hindoo  religion.  While 
at  first  simply  meaning  assent  or  solemn  affirma- 
tion, it  later  became  an  auspicious  word  of 
prayer  which  had  to  be  uttered  by  the  teachers 
before  beginning  to  read  the  sacred  writings. 
At  length  it  came  to  be  looked  upon  as  the 
abbreviated  method  of  naming  the  Hindoo 
Trinity,  without  taking  the  trouble  to  repeat 
the  names  of  three  gods.  The  syllable  was 


42       RELIGIONS  AND  PHILOSOPHIES 

even  adopted  by  the  Buddhists,  and  forms  the 
first  word  of  the  prayer  which  is  taught  to 
Buddhist  children,  but  which  no  one  has  yet 
succeeded  in  interpreting — "  Om  Mani  Padme 
hum/' 


CHAPTER  III 

Later  Brahmanism  —  The  Bhagavad-Gita  —  Krishna — 
Development  of  Krishnaism — Krishna  and  the  New 
Testament — Religious  system  of  the  Bhagavad-Gita 
—  Chandals — Pariahs. 

ONE  of  the  most  popular  books  in  India,  the 
Bhagavad-Gita,  is  read  by  practically  all  castes 
and  creeds  of  Hindoos  ;  for  it  forms  the  basis 
of  popular  Hinduism  —  modern  Hinduism 
being  a  corrupt  form  of  the  ancient  Vedism, 
influenced  to  some  small  extent  by  the  cult  of 
the  Buddhists.  The  word  "  Bhagavad-Gita  " 
means  "  The  Song  of  the  Adored  One  "  or  the 
"Divine  Lay/'  Bhagavad,  "the  Adored  One," 
being  a  term  applied  to  Krishna,  when  he 
is  identified  with  the  deity — hence  the  expres- 
sion "  Krishnaism/*  which  is  so  often  used 
when  speaking  of  the  faith  outlined  in  the 
Bhagavad-Gita.  Although  nominally  a  part 
of  the  epic  poem,  the  Mahabharata,  there  is  no 
connecting-link  between  the  Bhagavad-Gita 
and  the  other  works  which  go  to  make  up 
this  long  epic.  Modern  critics  are  therefore 
inclined  to  believe  that  it  was  added  at  a 
relatively  late  date  to  give  it  the  authority  of 
divine  inspiration  and  antiquity.  The  name  of 

43 


44  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

the  author  is  not  known  ;  but  the  book  was 
probably  written — or,  at  all  events,  parts  were 
added  to  it — about  the  first  century  of  our  era. 
Many  of  the  thoughts  and  ideas  in  it  are  to 
be  found  in  the  New  Testament,  from  which 
some  scholars  have  concluded  that  the  later 
additions  to  the  work  were  taken  from  the 
Christian  gospels  ;  though  others,  with  much 
more  evidence  to  justify  their  views,  hold  that 
parts  of  the  New  Testament  were  borrowed 
from  the  Bhagavad-Gita.  Krishna  says,  for 
example  :  "  Whatever  thou  doest,  whatever 
thou  eatest,  whatever  thou  sacrificest,  whatever 
thou  givest  away,  whatever  mortification  thou 
performest,  do  all  as  if  to  me"  (ix.  27),  with 
which  compare  i  Cor.  x.  31:  "Whether 
therefore  ye  eat,  or  drink,  or  whatsoever  ye 
do,  do  all  to  the  glory  of  God."  Again, 
Krishna  says  :  "  I  am  the  beginning,  the 
middle,  the  end,  the  eternal  time,  the  birth, 
the  death,  of  all/'  Compare  this  with  Christ's 
words  in  Revelation  i.  17-18  :  "And  when  I 
saw  him,  I  fell  at  his  feet  as  dead.  And  he 
laid  his  right  hand  upon  me,  saying  unto  me, 
Fear  not  ;  I  am  the  first  and  the  last  :  I  am  he 
that  liveth  and  was  dead  ;  and,  behold,  I  am 
alive  for  evermore,  Amen,  and  have  the  keys 
of  hell  and  of  death/'  c<  Be  not  sorrowful ; 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         45 

from  all  thy  sins  I  will  deliver  thee,"  says 
Krishna.  "  Be  of  good  cheer  ;  thy  sins  be 
forgiven  thee,"  we  read  in  Matt.  ix.  2. 
Then,  too,  the  transfiguration  of  Krishna  in 
the  eleventh  book  of  the  Bhagavad-Gita  is 
described  in  terms  not  unlike  those  used  in 
connection  with  the  Transfiguration  of  Christ. 
Another  remarkable  coincidence  is  Krishna's 
description  of  Heaven  :  "  In  which  neither  sun 
nor  moon  has  need  to  shine  ;  for  all  the  lustre 
it  possesses  is  mine."  The  heaven  described 
in  Revelation  xxi.  23,  is  a  city  which  "had  no 
need  of  the  sun,  neither  of  the  moon,  to  shine 
in  it ;  for  the  glory  of  God  did  lighten  it." 

Since  the  main  theme  of  the  Mahabharata  is 
the  war  between  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  Kurus 
and  Pandus,  the  author  of  the  Bhagavad-Gita, 
in  order  that  his  poem  might  appear  to  form 
an  integral  part  of  the  great  epic,  began  it  with 
a  description  of  the  battlefield  and  the  warriors. 
It  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  scene  of  the 
struggle  is  laid  at  Kurukshetra,  east  of  the 
Jumna,  and  in  the  upper  part  of  the  district 
called  Doab,  the  capital  of  which  was 
Hastinapura,  identified  with  the  modern  Delhi 
— in  other  words,  it  was  at  that  time  one  of 
the  strongholds  of  Buddhism.  The  opening 
scene  of  the  poem  is  the  battlefield,  and  long 


46  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

colloquies  take  place  among  the  leaders  to  put 
the  reader  in  possession  of  the  rather  compli- 
cated births,  deaths  and  intermarriages  leading 
up  to  the  main  theme.  Another  New  Testa- 
ment analogy  occurs  in  these  preliminary 
speeches  ;  for  some  Indian  Herod  is  described 
as  having  put  to  death  all  the  first-born  in  a 
certain  district.  Then  the  two  principal 
personages  are  introduced,  Krishna  and  his 
disciple  Arjuna,  and  their  subsequent  dialogue 
develops  the  conception  of  the  supreme  deity, 
Krishna  himself  being,  broadly  speaking,  the 
god  turned  man  who  created  the  world. 

Krishna,  according  to  the  Bhagavad-Gita,  is 
the  supreme  god.  He  is  above  all  other  gods, 
such  as  Brahma,  Vishnu  and  Siva  :  further,  he 
is  the  <{  only  existence,  the  only  real  substance 
of  ail  things/'  "  I  am  the  cause  of  the  pro- 
duction and  destruction  of  the  whole  uni- 
verse." "  There  exists  nothing  superior  to 
me."  "I  am  the  origin  of  all  gods,  the 
great  Lord  of  the  world  without  beginning/* 
"  I  am  the  eternal  seed  of  all  things  that 
exist."  "  I  have  established  and  continue  to 
establish  the  universe  by  one  portion  of  myself."1 
On  the  other  hand  the  Vishnu-Purana,  one 

1  I  quote  these  senten        from  Maurice  Phillips'  The  Bhagavad-Gita. 
Madras,  1893. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         47 

of  the  sacred  books  of  the  Hindoos,  represents 
Krishna  from  two  aspects  :  (i)  as  a  warrior- 
king  ;  and  (2)  as  the  incarnation  of  Vishnu, 
although  in  the  course  of  the  book  Krishna 
explicitly  claims  superiority  over  Vishnu.  As 
a  boy,  it  appears,  Krishna  was  very  unruly,  and 
many  of  his  pranks  remind  us  of  the  story  of 
Hercules  and  the  serpents.  Later  on  he  urged 
the  cowherds  to  leave  off  worshipping  Indra, 
the  god  of  rain,  and  to  worship  the  cows  which 
supported  them,  instead  of  the  grass  on  the 
mountain  that  supported  the  cows.  Angered 
at  this,  Indra  opened  the  gates  of  heaven  and 
would  have  deluged  the  whole  earth,  had  not 
Krishna  lifted  the  mountain,  Govardhana,  and 
held  it  above  his  head  like  an  umbrella.  Later 
events  in  his  career  include  his  marriage  with 
16,000  women,  by  whom  he  had  180,000  sons, 
an  attack  on  the  gods,  whom  he  defeated,  and 
the  destruction  of  the  city  of  Benares,  after 
which  latter  feat  he  was  accidentally  shot  dead 
by  a  hunter  in  somewhat  similar  circumstances 
to  those  in  which  William  Rufus  met  his  fate. 
Such  was  Krishna  the  warrior,  and  in  the 
minds  of  the  devout  he  is  always  distinguished 
by  the  qualities  of  Vishnu,  which,  it  may  be 
added,  was  formerly  one  of  the  names  of  the  sun. 
According  to  the  Bhagavad-Gita,  the 


48  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

world  is  not  a  creation,  but  was  produced 
by  Krishna  from  his  own  nature  (Prakriti). 
He  says  :  "  All  things  exist  in  me.  Supported 
by  my  material  essence,  I  cause  this  entire 
system  of  existing  things  to  emanate  again  and 
again,  without  any  power  of  their  own,  by  the 
power  of  this  material  essence.  When  a 
devotee  recognises  the  individual  essence  of 
everything  to  be  comprehended  in  one  and  to 
be  only  an  emanation  from  it,  he  the^-  attains 
to  the  supreme  spirit.  Earth,  water,  fire, 
wind,  ether,  heart,  intellect,  and  egoism  ;  into 
these  eight  components  is  my  nature  (Prakriti) 
divided.  This  nature  is  an  inferior  one  ;  but 
learn  my  superior  nature  other  than  this,  of  a 
vital  kind,  by  means  of  which  this  universe  is 
sustained.  Understand  that  all  things  are  pro- 
duced from  this  latter,  or  higher,  nature."  In 
its  complete  development  the  doctrine  adds 
fifteen  component  parts  to  the  eight  mentioned 
above,  designating  the  inferior  nature  as 
avyakta,  or  non-developed  matter,  which  is 
turned  into  vyakta,  or  developed  matter,  by 
the  superior  nature. 

Such  is  a  brief  outline  of  the  explanation  of 
the  origin  of  the  world  given  in  the  Bhagavad- 
Gita,  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  almost 
as  many  Indian  commentaries  have  been  written 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         49 

upon  it  as  on  the  New  Testament,  and  to  as 
little  purpose. 

Man,  according  to  this  Hindoo  Bible,  is  com- 
posed of  an  eternal  immortal  soul,  an  emanation 
from  Krishna's  superior  nature,  and  of  a 
mortal  and  perishable  body,  derived  from 
Krishna's  inferior  nature.  The  soul  is  subject 
to  transmigration  from  body  to  body  (as  in 
Buddhism  or  Brahmanism)  until  it  is  finally 
absorbed  again  into  Krishna's  "  essence/'  which, 
of  course,  is  but  another  conception  of  Nirvana. 
The  only  real  existence  is  spirit,  which  is 
eternal.  What  we  call  matter  does  not  exist 
at  all  ;  it  is  only  the  delusion  of  Maya,  the 
mystic  power  by  which  Krishna,  the  supreme 
god,  has  created  an  ephemeral  world,  which 
seems  to  be  but  is  not.  "  Krishna  "  is  indestruc- 
tible. "As  a  man  abandons  worn-out  clothes 
and  dons  new  ones,  so  the  soul  leaves  worn- 
out  bodies  and  enters  other  new  ones." 

Nature  (Prakriti)  is  composed  of  three 
qualities  (Gunas),  goodness,  passion,  and  ignor- 
ance (Sattwa,  Rajas,  and  Tamas),  and  the  soul, 
being  united  with  nature,  comes  under  their 
influence.  Hence  these  qualities  mentioned 
unite  the  soul  with  illusion  and  bring  about 
transmigration.  And  God  (Krishna)  is  respon- 
sible for  all  our  actions,  good  or  evil ;  for  "all 


50  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

qualities  (Gunas),  whether  goodness  (Sattwa), 
passion  (Rajas),  or  ignorance  and  darkness 
(Tamas)  proceed  from  me."  Thus  is  the 
question  of  free-will  disposed  of. 

The  caste  system  is  divine  according  to  the 
teaching  of  the  Bhagavad-Gita  ;  u  Krishna  is 
the  creator  of  the  institution  of  the  four  castes 
according  to  the  distribution  of  natural  quali- 
ties and  actions.  The  Brahman  has  a  pre- 
ponderance of  goodness,  the  Kshatriya  (warrior) 
of  goodness  and  passion,  the  Vaisya  (i.e.,  the 
merchant  and  husbandmen-class)  of  passion 
and  darkness  (i.e.,  ignorance),  and  the  Sudra 
of  darkness  alone."  The  actions  of  the  first 
are  knowledge,  prayer,  inspiration,  and  self- 
restraint  ;  of  the  second,  sovereignty  and  pro- 
tection of  the  people  ;  of  the  third,  commerce 
and  agriculture ;  of  the  fourth,  servitude.1 
Such  is  the  system,  admirable  at  all  events  in 
theory,  of  Indian  society.  The  main  objection 
made  to  it  by  the  Christian  missionaries  is  a 
characteristic  one  ;  that  it  is  contrary  to  the 
"  brotherhood  of  man  " — and  this,  in  the  eyes 
of  a  modern  thinker,  is  its  chief  advantage 
and  salient  merit.  Men  are  not  born  equal, 
they  do  not  grow  up  equal,  they  never  become 

1  Maurice    Phillips   has  given   the  most   concise  summary  of  this 
section  of  the  Bhagavad-Gita  in  his  book  already  quoted. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         51 

equal  ;  and  a  religious  system  which  is  based 
on  the  equality  of  mankind  is  naturally  founded 
on  an  essential  fallacy  from  the  very  beginning. 
To  the  author  of  the  Bhagavad-Gita, 
salvation  is  the  release  of  the  soul  from 
the  bond  of  illusory  matter  and  from  the 
influence  of  the  three  " qualities'*  mentioned 
above.  The  best  way  of  effecting  this  release 
is  by  meditation  ;  a  man  is  to  go  about  his 
business  as  usual,  but  at  the  same  time  he 
should  constantly  meditate  on  the  supreme 
being  until  he  is  fit  to  be  absorbed  into  him. 
The  writer  of  the  Bhagavad-Gita  endeavoured 
to  reconcile  the  ascetic  Inanayoga  of  Kapila  and 
the  Yoga  of  Patanjali  with  action,  for  the 
nature  of  asceticism  proved  so  attractive  to  the 
Hindoos  that  everyone  wanted  to  become  an 
ascetic  and  thus  society  for  a  time  threatened 
to  be  entirely  disorganised.  The  Bhagavad- 
Gita  shows  that  it  is  impossible  for  a  man  to 
live  without  action,  and  imposed  upon  all  the 
castes  the  obligation  of  regularly  performing 
their  prescribed  duties,  while  at  the  same  time 
renouncing  the  world  as  much  as  possible.  To 
this  end  the  passions  should  be  subdued,  and 
certain  rules  are  given  to  show  how  this  may 
be  done :  "  A  devotee  should  always  exercise 
himself,  remaining  in  seclusion  and  solitude, 


52  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

restraining  his  thoughts,  without  indulging 
hopes  and  without  possessions,  keeping  a  couch 
for  himself  in  an  undefiled  spot,  not  too  lofty 
or  too  low.  Then,  fixing  his  heart  on  the 
supreme  being,  restraining  his  thoughts,  senses, 
and  actions,  he  should  practise  devotion  for 
the  purification  of  his  soul.  Holding  his  body, 
head,  and  neck,  all  even  and  immovable,  firmly 
seated  ;  regarding  only  the  tip  of  his  nose, 
and  not  looking  round  in  different  directions, 
the  devotee  should  remain  quiet  with  passion- 
less soul,  free  from  anxiety,  and  intent  on  me 
[Krishna].  .  .  .  Hear  my  supreme  words, 
most  sacred  of  all.  Thou  art  very  much  be- 
loved of  me,  and  therefore  I  will  tell  thee  what  is 
good.  Place  thy  affections  on  me,  worship  me, 
sacrifice  to  me,  and  reverence  me.  Seek  me  as 
thy  refuge,  and  I  will  deliver  thee  from  all  sin.*' 
Pantheism,  of  course,  is  an  essential  doctrine 
of  this  book.  All  things  are  emanations  from 
God  (Krishna)  :  therefore,  no  matter  what  things 
may  be  worshipped,  he  is  worshipped  in  them. 
The  teachings,  however,  apply  only  to  the  four 
castes  mentioned,  and  leave  altogether  out  of 
account  the  Pariahs  and  Chandalas,  the  outcasts 
who  are  altogether  beyond  the  pale.1 

1  Chandal,  or  Chandala,  is  the  name  of  a  caste  which  was  said  to 
have  sprung  from  the  union  of  a  Sudra  man  and  a  Brahma  woman. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         53 

Such,  then,  is  a  condensed  summary  of  the 
remarkable  Bhagavad-Gita.  We  may  compare 
it  to  some  extent  with  the  Koran  :  it  was  de- 
vised in  a  fairly  later  period  of  religious  history 
to  satisfy  the  pressing  needs  of  a  certain  large 
class  of  people  ;  it  clearly  originated  in  an  aristo- 
cratic source,  as  did  Mohammed  ;  written  by  a 
man,  it  was  ascribed  to,  and  believed  to  be 
the  work  of,  God  ;  and  many  of  its  texts  and 
incidents  are  taken  from  older  works.  But 
the  analogy  will  not  go  much  further.  The 
Bhagavad-Gita  is  nihilistic,  and  the  faith  out- 
lined in  it  suffers  from  the  lack  of  a  single 
concentrated  deity  to  superintend  a  host  of 
minor  gods.  Then  again  the  magnificent 
fighting  spirit  of  Mohammed  is  absent,  and 
the  glowing  Arabic  frenzy  of  the  Prophet  of 
Allah  is  ill-compensated  by  transmigration, 
Nirvana,  and  finally  extinction. 

As  this  was  regarded  as  the  worst  possible  form  of  pollution,  all  the 
descendants  of  the  couple  were  regarded  as  outcasts.  The  Lawg  of 
Manu  refer  to  the  Chandal  as  the  lowest  of  mankind,  and  ordain  that 
he  shall  live  strictly  apart  from  the  four  regular  castes,  his  clothes  to  be 
those  of  dead  men,  and  his  sole  possession  dogs  and  asses.  In  some 
places,  e.g.,  Bengal,  the  Chandal  is  employed  for  labouring  work,  but 
sleeps  and  eats  by  himself,  while  they  are  also  to  be  found  as  palanquin- 
bearers  and  gardeners.  Pariah  is  a  corruption  of  the  Tamil  word 
Paraiyan,  applied  to  a  man  practically  corresponding  to  the  Sanskrit 
Chandal.  The  original  occupation  of  these  outcasts  was  that  of  beating 
the  parai,  or  tom-tom,  at  funerals  or  other  solemn  occasions.  Chandal 
must  not  be  confused  with  Chandel,  the  name  of  a  Rajput  tribe,  with 
Chandeli,  a  fine  sort  of  cotton  cloth,  or  with  Chandla,  a  small  ornament 
usually  worn  on  the  forehead, 


CHAPTER  IV 

The  rise  of  Buddhism — Religion  in  theory  and  practice — 
Birth  of  the  Buddha — His  early  years — Studies  and 
temptations — His  system  of  propagating  the  faith — 
Illness  and  Death — Character  of  the  Buddha — Euro- 
pean Influence  of  Buddhism 

THE  position  of  the  Brahman  domination  about 
600  B.C.  may  not  unreasonably  be  compared  to 
that  of  the  Roman  Empire  in  the  first  century 
of  our  era.     A  superabundance  of  energy  ex- 
tending over  a  long  period  of  time  seemed  to 
have  spent  itself,  and  an  age  of  mediocrity  had 
set    in.     Life  had   become  more    complicated. 
The  beautiful  nature-worship  of  a  pagan  time 
had  given  place  to  an  intricate  system  of  gods. 
Faith   had   yielded    to    cynicism  ;    an   age   of 
creative  minds  was  replaced  by  an  age  of  com- 
mentators ;  grammarians  and  pedants  had  taken 
the  place  of  poets  and  dramatists.     The  spiritual 
rout  of  the  Roman  Empire  was  completed  by 
the  introduction  of  Christianity,  which,  acting 
up  to  its  essential  principle  of  upholding  the 
weak  against  the  strong,  overawed  the  relatively 
few  wealthy  and  energetic  Roman  nobles  who 
remained  by  solemn  tales  of  their  eternal  dam- 

54 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         55 

nation  in  the  world  to  come.  Women  were 
little  by  little  exalted  to  the  level  of  men,  the 
slave  was  as  good  as  his  master,  the  wretched 
cripple,  the  imbecile,  the  dunce,  were  equal  in 
the  sight  of  God  to  the  strong,  the  mentally 
and  physically  creative,  the  energetic,  and  the 
powerful. 

A  somewhat  similar  narcotic  was  injected 
into  Brahmanism  in  the  sixth  century  B.C. 
True,  the  Brahman  and  the  Roman  noble  dif- 
fered in  their  vitality,  their  creativeness,  and 
their  outlook  on  life  to  an  almost  infinite  extent ; 
but  the  Indian  system  of  faith  had  at  all  events 
one  enormous  advantage  :  it  upheld  the  caste 
system  under  the  severest  penalties.  But  for 
the  religious  poison  which  caused  the  highest 
caste  to  look  forward  to  extinction,  with  the 
most  profound  pessimism,  as  the  final  boon, 
the  last  refuge,  it  might  have  been  recorded  to 
the  credit  of  the  Brahmans  that  they  continu- 
ously upheld  a  society  which  was  almost  perfect 
in  its  organisation.  We  have  the  broad  basis 
of  servitude,  upon  which,  as  Nietzsche  justly 
remarks,  all  culture  must  be  founded.  Next 
in  the  scale  come  the  merchants,  farmers,  and 
skilled  workmen.  Then,  still  ascending,  we 
have  the  kings  and  warriors,  the  ruling  and  the 
military  caste.  But,  instead  of  the  highest 


56  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

caste  of  all  being  creative,  constantly  engaged 
in  forming  fresh  moral  values,  as  Nietzsche 
suggests  in  Der  Antichrist,  we  have  a  caste 
which  commits  the  greatest  of  crimes  by  deny- 
ing life — not  merely  life  on  this  earth,  in 
accordance  with  Christian  moral  values  ;  but 
all  life.  There  is  to  be  no  future  existence 
except  in  the  form  of  transmigration,  and,  if 
our  deeds  in  our  present  state  are  "  good,"  we 
may  expect  to  go  through  life  again  in  a"  better0 
form  ;  but  the  ultimate  aim  held  out  by  the 
Brahman  is  utter  extinction.  We  have  no 
soul.  We  have  nothing  to  look  forward  to. 
Life  is  a  burden  which  it  is  not  worth  while  to 
bear  ;  and  our  sole  aim  should  be  to  get  entirely 
rid  of  it  as  quickly  as  we  possibly  can. 

No  religion,  of  course,  works  out  exactly  in 
practice  as  it  does  in  theory  ;  and  in  spite  of 
all  this  depressing  teaching  battles  were  fought, 
literature  of  a  sort  was  gradually  formed,  and 
merchants  cheated  one  another  just  as  they 
do  in  Christian  countries  at  the  present  day. 
Kings  and  warriors  kept  clients  and  followers, 
and  the  Brahman  himself  was  often  a  welcome 
guest  at  the  table  of  the  great  man  belonging 
to  the  caste  immediately  beneath  him.  Certain 
religious  rites  had  been  invented,  which,  though 
not  obligatory,  were  held  to  be  efficacious  in 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         57 

securing  the  Hindoo's  speedy  annihilation. 
These  ceremonies  necessitated  the  presence  of 
representatives  of  the  priestly  caste,  and,  if  we 
may  trust  the  commentators  on  the  Vedas, 
they  were  not  performed  without  a  series  of 
feasts,  extending,  in  some  cases,  over  three 
weeks,  or  without  sums  of  money  changing 
hands.  (The  analogy  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
religion  of  paying  for  masses,  which,  though 
not  essential,  are  desirable  in  order  that  release 
from  Purgatory  may  be  secured  sooner  than 
would  otherwise  be  the  case,  will  at  once  occur 
to  the  reader.)  Less  elaborate  rites  were 
apportioned  to  the  merchant  class  ;  and  thus 
for  thousands  of  years  the  natural  vitality  of 
the  race,  due,  in  the  first  instance  to  the  warrior 
caste,  enabled  the  development  of  the  tribe  to 
be  carried  on  for  many  generations.  The 
seizure  of  the  supreme  power  by  the  Brahmans, 
however,  gradually  checked  this  development 
in  the  course  of  ages,  and  it  wanted  but  the 
overthrow  of  the  caste  system  to  degrade 
Brahmanism  to  as  low  a  level  as  it  was  possible 
for  it  to  reach.  An  assailant  of  the  old  order 
of  things  was  soon  destined  to  appear. 

One  of  the  ruling  chieftains  of  the  numerous 
tribes  into  which  the  Aryans  were  now  split 
up  was  the  Rajah  Suddhodana.  His  people, 


58  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

known  as  the  Sakyas,  occupied  the  district  of 
Kapilavastu,  not  far  from  Benares.  The  two 
principal  wives  of  the  Rajah,  both  of  whom 
were  the  daughters  of  a  neighbouring 
chieftain,  were  long  thought  to  be  barren  ; 
but  the  elder  sister,  Mahamaya,  when  just  over 
forty  years  of  age,  bore  her  husband  a  son. 
It  is  related  that  she  was  on  her  way  to  her 
parents'  home,  where  she  wished  to  give  birth  to 
the  child,  when,  as  the  party  halted  on  the  way 
under  the  shade  of  some  trees,  her  son,  the 
future  Buddha,  and  deadly  opponent  of  the 
Brahmans,  unexpectedly  came  into  the  world — 
that  world  and  life  which  he  afterwards  came 
to  look  upon  with  loathing  and  contempt,  and 
from  which,  by  diligent  study  and  learning,  he 
endeavoured  to  save  his  own  and  succeeding 
generations. 

The  Lalita-Vistara,  an  old  Sanskrit  work 
containing  an  account  of  Buddha's  life,  gives 
a  long  list  of  the  qualities  of  the  teacher's 
mother  ;  but  these  may  merely  form  part  of 
the  legends  which  grew  up  around  his  name  a 
few  years  after  his  death.  "  The  ravishing 
wife  of  Suddhodana,"  so  begins  the  narrative, 
"  is  one  of  a  thousand,  for  she  has  attained  per- 
fection. Bewitching  the  hearts  of  all  who  see 
her,  like  some  queen  of  an  illusive  fairyland, 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         59 

she  is  known  as  Mahamaya  or  Maya- Devi,  the 
queen  of  illusion.  Her  beauty  is  perfect,  like 
that  of  a  child  of  the  gods  ;  the  shape  of  her 
body  is  faultless.  She  is  carried  away  by 
affection,  and  at  times  aroused  with  anger  ; 
but  throughout  she  remains  ever  amiable, 
sweet,  just,  and  good.  Modest  and  chaste, 
she  observes  the  Law.  She  exhibits  neither 
pride  nor  frivolity  ;  lying  and  deceit  are  un- 
known to  her.  The  faults  that  may  easily  be 
found  in  other  women  do  not  exist  in  her. 
She  practises  the  penances  called  for  by  the 
Law.  With  the  consent  of  the  king,  she  has 
obtained  the  privilege  of  not  submitting  to 
sexual  intercourse  with  him  for  the  period  of 
thirty-two  months.  .  .  .  No  man  can  look 
upon  this  woman  with  amorous  desire  ;  and  on 
account  of  the  good  works  of  the  queen  the 
great  family  of  the  king  continues  to  prosper." 
The  qualities  ascribed  to  the  mother  of 
Buddha  may  be  compared  by  the  curious  with 
those  ascribed  five  centuries  later  to  the  Virgin 
Mary,  and  for  purposes  of  comparison  a  few  of 
the  other  legends  which  were  circulated  con- 
cerning the  Buddha  from  time  to  time  are  well 
worth  giving.  One  tradition  states  that  the 
queen  died  seven  days  after  having  given  birth 
to  the  child,  "  For  alas  !  having  once  been  the 


60  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

primary  dwelling-place  of  the  Buddha,  the 
good  queen's  body  was  too  sacred  a  place  to 
bear  another  human  burden  on  any  future 
occasion."  The  young  prince  was  said  to  be 
provided  with  the  thirty-two  characteristics  of 
a  great  man,  and  with  the  eighty  secondary 
characteristics.  A  few  of  these  are  chronicled 
m  the  Lalita-Fistara.  "  The  young  Siddhartha 
possesses  a  large  skull.  His  forehead  is  broad, 
his  eyes  dark.  His  forty  teeth  are  equal  and 
beautifully  white,  his  skin  is  fine  and  of  the 
colour  of  gold.  His  limbs  are  like  those  of 
Ainaya,  the  king  of  the  gazelles  ;  his  hands 
and  feet  are  small  and  delicate.  His  head  is 
well  shaped ;  his  hair  black  and  curly." 
Other  legends,  obviously  inventions  based  on 
some  greatly  exaggerated  truth,  inform  us 
that  the  Buddha  was  born  with  a  full  set  of 
teeth,  and  that  he  spoke  from  his  mother's 
womb  seven  days  before  birth. 

The  child's  family  name  was  Gautama,  by 
which  the  saint  was  usually  known  in  his  life- 
time, the  name  Siddhartha  mentioned  in  the 
tradition  given  above  being  prefixed  by  the 
family.  We  also  find  him  referred  to  as  Sakya- 
muni,  from  the  tribe  over  which  his  father 
ruled.  When  nineteen  years  of  age  Gautama 
married  his  cousin  Yasodhara,  and  for  several 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST          61 

years,  in  the  intervals  of  deep  studies,  lived  the 
customary  life  of  pleasure  usually  associated 
in  the  western  mind  with  Oriental  princes. 
Then  we  come  to  the  well-known  anecdote 
concerning  the  awakening  of  his  religious 
instinct.  We  learn  that,  in  his  thirtieth  year, 
as  he  was  being  driven  through  his  estates,  he 
caught  sight  of  an  infirm  man  bent  down  by 
extreme  old  age.  On  another  occasion,  soon 
afterwards,  he  beheld  a  man  who  was  suffering 
from  some  loathsome  disease,  and  a  few 
months  later  his  attention  was  drawn  to  the 
spectacle  of  a  decomposing  corpse.  On  each 
occasion  his  charioteer,  a  man  named  Channa, 
who  seems  to  have  been  something  of  a 
lugubrious  philosopher,  told  him  that  this  was 
the  fate  of  all  living  things.  Some  weeks  after 
having  seen  the  corpse,  it  is  said,  he  met  with 
an  ascetic,  who  explained  to  him  the  ascetic 
philosophy  of  the  Brahmans. 

There  is  a  certain  amount  of  variation  in 
these  anecdotes,  numbers  of  which  were  invented 
and  circulated  about  the  Buddha  from  time  to 
time.  A  few  chronicles,  for  example,  add  that 
on  the  three  occasions  mentioned  above  it 
was  really  an  angel  who  appeared  to  Gautama 
in  the  guise  of  an  old  man,  a  corpse,  etc. 
The  general  trend  of  such  stories,  however,  is 


62  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

sufficient  to  show  that,  when  about  twenty- 
nine  or  thirty  years  of  age,  Gautama's  mind 
was  suddenly,  or,  it  may  be,  gradually, 
awakened  to  the  influence  of  religion.  When 
bathing  in  the  river  after  an  earnest  conversa- 
tion with  the  ascetic  Brahman,  news  was 
brought  to  him  that  his  wife  had  given  birth 
to  a  son,  and  he  is  said  to  have  muttered 
something  about  having  now  a  stronger  bond 
to  break.  During  the  remainder  of  the  evening 
he  found  himself  obliged  to  take  part  in  the 
rejoicings  to  which  the  event  gave  rise  ;  but 
at  midnight,  having  taken  a  final  look  at  his 
wife  and  child,  he  ordered  Channa  to  saddle 
his  horse.  Then,  with  his  charioteer  as  his  sole 
companion,  he  left  his  palace,  saying,  it  is 
related,  that  he  would  not  return  until  he  had 
become  the  Buddha — i.e.,  the  enlightened  one. 
This  flight  is  chronicled  as  having  taken  place 
in  midsummer. 

The  next  event  recorded  of  Gautama  is  one 
which  cannot  fail  to  remind  us  of  a  somewhat 
similar  incident  in  the  New  Testament.  The 
Tempter,  Mara,  appears  to  him  and  urges  him, 
with  many  blandishments  and  promises,  to 
return.  Although  the  attempt  fails,  Mara 
consoles  himself  with  the  thought  that  he  will 
obtain  complete  control  over  the  prince  when 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         63 

the  latter  is  seized  with  some  sensual  feeling  or 
angry  wish.  On  the  following  morning  a  halt 
was  made  on  the  bank  of  the  Anoma,  and  here 
the  prince  cut  off  his  flowing  hair — one  indica- 
tion of  his  high  rank — and  took  off  his  orna- 
ments, sending  them  back  to  his  father's  palace 
in  charge  of  his  servant  Channa,  together  with 
his  horse.  A  shrine  was  afterwards  erected  at 
this  spot.  A  visit  to  two  Brahman  teachers, 
Alara  and  Udraka,  followed,  and  when  Gautama, 
in  the  course  of  the  seven  years  prescribed  by 
the  custom  of  the  period,  had  learnt  all  that 
was  known  about  Hindoo  philosophy,  he  re- 
tired to  the  jungle  of  Uruvela  in  the  Vindhya 
mountains  and  led  the  life  of  a  strict  ascetic 
for  six  years.  So  severe  was  the  treatment  he 
meted  out  to  himself  that  his  fame  as  an  ascetic 
spread  "  like  the  sound  of  a  huge  bell  suspended 
in  the  belfry  of  heaven."  This  led  to  a  break- 
down, and  for  some  time  the  teacher  felt  con- 
strained to  live  more  rationally. 

And  now  came  Gautama's  great  period  of 
temptation.  It  lasted  less  than  twenty-four 
hours  ;  but  the  whole  event  has  become  almost 
obliterated  under  a  heap  of  legends  and  incred- 
ible stories.  Briefly,  Gautama  seems  to  have 
reasoned  with  himself  in  an  endeavour  to  weigh 
what  he  had  given  up,  what  he  had  gained  by 


64  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

it,  and  whether  the  one  balanced  the  other. 
He  had  lost  home,  wife,  child,  wealth,  princely 
rank  ;  but,  although  he  had  almost  killed 
himself  by  severe  penance,  deep  studies,  and 
intense  thinking,  he  had  not  yet  attained  to 
the  wisdom  which  raised  man  above  the  gods. 
Even  five  young  disciples  who  had  joined  him 
in  the  jungle  left  him  when  his  health  broke 
down.  The  Brahman  philosophy  had  taught 
him  that  everything — the  earth  itself,  and  every 
man  and  animal  on  it — carried  within  itself 
the  germs  of  bitterness  and  impermanency  ;  but 
now  he  felt  the  want  of  the  power  and  comforts 
he  had  given  up,  and  he  began  to  doubt  the 
value  of  what  he  had  actually  accomplished. 
All  this  meditation  took  place  on  the  banks  of 
the  Nairanjara,  under  a  tree  which  was  known 
long  afterwards  as  the  sacred  Bo  tree,  or  tree 
of  wisdom.  As  the  sun  was  setting,  how- 
ever, the  religious  instinct  of  the  man  pre- 
vailed, and  he  decided  against  the  joys  of  the 
earth. 

Henceforth  Gautama's  way  of  life  was 
definitely  established  :  when  he  rose  he  was 
the  Buddha,  the  Illuminated  ;  and  it  was  now 
his  task  to  spread  among  the  rest  of  mankind 
the  happiness  he  had  acquired.  If  the  traditions 
recorded  in  the  Buddhist  writings  can  be  trusted, 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         65 

Gautama  was  at  this  period  a  little  over  forty 
years  of  age. 

As  might  have  been  expected,  a  crop  of 
legends  grew  up  around  the  subject  of  the 
temptation  to  which  the  Buddha  had  been 
exposed  under  the  Bo  tree  ;  and  Mara,  the 
supreme  tempter,  was  said  to  have  made 
several  final  efforts  to  seduce  him  from  his 
high  ideal.  This  led  to  as  great  an  explosion 
of  wrath  as  a  Buddhist  could  be  expected  to 
reach.  "  Soon  shall  I  vanquish  thee  !  "  cries 
the  saint ;  "  the  passions  are  thy  first  army,  dis- 
content the  second,  hunger  and  thirst  the  third, 
avarice  the  fourth.  Idleness  and  indolence  form 
the  fifth  ;  fear  is  the  sixth,  doubt  the  seventh, 
anger  and  hypocrisy  the  eighth.  Ambition 
and  praise,  the  admiration  of  men,  falsely- 
acquired  renown,  glorification  of  self  and  de- 
preciation of  others  :  all  these  combine  to  form 
the  allied  forces  of  the  demon,  and  this  is  thine 
army  that  conquers  the  world.  But  I  will 
crush  it  by  means  of  wisdom,  as  a  lump  of  clay 
crumbles  to  pieces  when  washed  by  the  rolling 


stream." 


Having  tried  all  other  means  in  vain,  Mara 
as  a  last  resort  sends  a  bevy  of  young  women, 
ideally  beautiful,  to  surround  the  saint  and 
tempt  his  virtue,  in  the  hope  that,  as  Gautama 


66  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

must  be  greatly  weakened  in  body  and  mind 
by  long  fasting  and  meditation,  he  will  yield 
to  feminine  charms  when  all  other  means  of 
temptation  have  proved  unavailing.  The 
Lalita-Vistara  describes  at  almost  wearisome 
length  the  beauty  of  the  nymphs,  the  songs 
they  sing,  their  dances,  and  the  calm  words 
in  which  the  saint  replies  to  them.  "  Ah ! 
between  griefs  and  passions  the  difference  is 
not  great,  and  the  passions  are  at  the  roots 
of  all  the  griefs  which  little  by  little  destroy 
contemplation,  that  supernatural  power.  Im- 
possible, say  the  sages,  to  satisfy  one's  desire 
for  women.  But  I,  by  means  of  wisdom,  can 
satisfy  this  desire  in  myself  and  others.  The 
passions,  left  to  themselves,  go  on  increasing, 
like  the  thirst  of  a  man  who  has  drunk  salt 
water,  and  a  man  who  gives  himself  up  to 
them  is  useful  neither  to  himself  nor  to 
others.'' 

Heedless  of  the  sage's  refusal  to  yield  to 
them,  the  nymphs  continue  their  song  in 
praise  of  lust.  "  What  man  is  there  who 
could  refuse  to  be  tempted  by  so  much 
beauty?  Behold  our  long  hair,  perfumed 
by  the  sweetest  scents,  our  dark  eyes,  our 
beautiful  teeth,  our  ornaments  of  gold  .  .  ." 

But   the    saint  interrupts :    "  The    passions 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         67 

are  inconstant  and  impermanent,  like  the 
drop  of  dew  on  a  blade  of  grass.  Your 
bodies,  beautiful  to  you,  are  in  my  sight 
unclean  and  impure,  soon  to  be  eaten  by 
worms,  filled  with  grief:  while  wisdom  will 
assure  me  all  that  imperishable  dignity  held 
in  reverence  by  the  wise." 

The  end  of  this  temptation  is  spoken  of  in 
the  LaHta-Vistara,)  in  the  very  words  used  by 
the  Buddha  himself  to  his  disciple,  Ananda. 
"  Since  it  was  impossible  for  Mara  to  tempt 
me  with  beautiful  women,  he  endeavoured 
to  make  me  stray  from  my  path  by  appearing 
himself  in  a  different  form,  and  trying  to 
make  me  believe  that  I  had  already  entered 
into  Nirvana.  Standing  upright  beside  me, 
Ananda,  Mara  spoke  thus  :  '  Now,  O  sublime 
one,  enter  into  Nirvana  !  Now  has  Nirvana 
come  to  thee,  thou  perfect  one.'  But  when 
I  heard  these  words,  O  Ananda,  I  answered  : 
(  I  will  not  enter  into  Nirvana,  O  Mara,  until 
1  have  gained  disciples  for  myself,  and  wise 
monks,  who  will  gradually  come  to  understand 
my  doctrine,  and  who  will  be  able  to  spread 
and  propagate  in  distant  lands  what  they  have 
heard  from  the  lips  of  their  master.  Then, 
O  tempter,  will  I  enter  into  Nirvana,  but  not 
before.' " 


68  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

After  the  departure  of  the  angry  Mara,  the 
Buddha  fell  into  a  reverie  on  the  subject  of 
penance,  and  was  not  comforted  until  the 
archangel  Brahma  came  and  explained  away 
his  doubts.  We  learn,  at  all  events,  that  he 
ever  afterwards  declared  to  his  disciples  and 
followers  that  such  great  self-mortification 
as  he  had  passed  through  was  unnecessary, 
and  that  extreme  penance  was  of  but  little 
value.  Having  fasted  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  Bo  tree  for  seven  days  and  nights, 
his  wants  being  supplied  by  the  angel  Brahma, 
the  Buddha  set  out  to  preach  his  gospel.  As 
might  naturally  be  expected,  he  met  with 
but  poor  success  at  first,  but  neither  the  ill- 
concealed  contempt  of  his  former  disciples 
nor  the  scoffing  of  his  old  acquaintances  was 
sufficient  to  damp  his  prophetic  ardour. 

Having  spent  some  time  near  Benares  and 
gathered  around  him  fifty  or  sixty  followers, 
the  Buddha  fell  in  with  the  five  disciples  who 
had  accompanied  him  for  some  time  in  the 
jungle.  They  now  rejoined  him,  with  many 
protestations  of  devotion,  and  were  selected, 
together  with  a  few  others,  to  travel  through 
different  parts  of  the  country  and  spread  the 
new  teaching.  This  selection  and  distribution 
of  disciples  was  a  plan  which  the  Buddha 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         69 

adopted  every  year,  a  certain  number  of  the 
more  advanced  and  intelligent  pupils  being 
chosen,  specially  instructed,  and  despatched 
as  missionaries  to  distant  towns  and  provinces. 

After  the  Buddha  had  spent  a  year  or  two 
in  teaching  his  new  doctrine,  it  came  to  the 
ears  of  his  father  the  Rajah  Suddhodana,  that 
his  son  had  forsaken  his  ascetic  life  to  become 
a  teacher.  He  therefore  sent  for  the  former 
prince  and  begged  him  to  return  home.  An 
affecting  interview  took  place  on  the  outskirts 
of  Kapilavastu  between  Gautama  and  the 
various  members  of  his  family  ;  but  it  ended 
in  the  teacher's  starting  to  beg  his  bread  as 
usual,  in  accordance  with  the  custom  he  had 
laid  down  for  himself.  Ashamed  of  this,  the 
Rajah  urgently  begged  his  son  to  come  to 
the  palace,  if  only  to  see  his  wife  and  child. 
Apparently  this  wish  was  acceded  to,  and 
we  learn  that  a  pathetic  scene  took  place 
between  Gautama  and  his  wife.  The  latter, 
it  seems,  long  afterwards  became  one  of  the 
Buddhist  nuns  when  the  founder  of  the  religion 
was  persuaded,  somewhat  against  his  own  views, 
to  establish  such  an  order  for  females. 

We  do  not  possess  very  complete  records  of 
what  happened  at  the  palace  after  Gautama's 
return  ;  nor,  indeed,  so  far  as  the  development 


70  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

of  his  faith  is  concerned,  is  this  of  very  great 
importance.  It  would  appear  that  he  took 
full  advantage  of  the  liberty  offered  him  to 
make  further  converts,  including  in  the 
number  his  own  son.  This  greatly  distressed 
his  father,  who  thus  saw  himself  shorn  of  any 
hope  of  a  successor  to  the  throne.  By  way  of 
securing  other  families  from  a  similar  calamity, 
he  obtained  an  assurance  from  the  Buddha 
that  in  future  no  young  person  would  be 
admitted  to  membership  of  the  society  without 
the  consent  of  his  parents. 

From  this  time  forward,  unfortunately,  we 
have  no  very  connected  accounts  concerning 
the  future  career  of  the  teacher.  Several 
alleged  sayings  of  his  have  been  recorded,  and 
there  are  numerous  anecdotes  about  him  ;  but 
it  is  now  difficult,  after  the  lapse  of  twenty- 
four  centuries,  to  distinguish  the  true  from  the 
false,  except  in  a  very  few  cases.  These 
confused  accounts,  however,  grow  clearer  when 
we  come  to  the  last  few  weeks  of  the  Buddha's 
life,  though  even  then  little  is  reported  beyond 
the  bare  facts.  When  nearly  eighty-two  years 
old  (about  420  B.C.),  he  set  out  from  Pawa  to 
travel  to  Kusinagara,  120  miles  to  the  north- 
west of  Benares.  Several  stoppages  had  to  be 
made  on  the  way,  owing  to  the  teacher's 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         71 

declining  health,  and  it  was  some  days  before 
the  River  Hiranyavati,  close  to  their  destina- 
tion, was  reached.  Here  the  party  rested 
again,  and  Gautama  had  a  long  conversation 
with  his  disciple  Ananda  regarding  certain 
rules  to  be  observed  by  the  Society  of 
Buddhists.  In  the  course  of  this  conversation, 
however,  Ananda  observed  that  a  brilliant 
light  seemed  to  be  surrounding  his  master, 
and  a  garment  of  golden  cloth  offered  earlier 
in  the  day  by  another  fervent  disciple  of  the 
Buddha  seemed  to  lose  colour  by  comparison. 
Astonished,  Ananda  referred  to  the  phen- 
omenon, and  the  sage  said  quietly  :  "  What 
you  observe  is  right  and  proper,  Ananda. 
The  Buddha  is  twice  transfigured  in  his  earthly 
career  :  once  on  the  evening  of  the  day  he 
attains  supremest  wisdom,  and  a  second  time 
in  the  night  when  he  enters  into  eternal  peace. 
And  it  is  now,  Ananda,  in  the  third  hour  of 
the  night,  that  the  Buddha  is  going  to  enter 
into  eternal  peace/'  During  the  night,  as 
the  teacher  lay  dying,  celestial  hymns  were 
heard  from  afar,  and  strange  forms  were 
visible  in  the  heavens.  At  the  last  moment 
Gautama  summoned  his  disciples,  and,  finding 
they  had  no  further  questions  to  ask  him,  he 
uttered  the  words  :  "  Always  remember  what  I 


72  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

have  told  you ;  everything  that  is  born  is 
perishable.  Endeavour,  therefore,  to  act  in 
such  a  way  as  to  merit  deliverance."  These 
were  his  last  words.  When  Ananda  softly 
approached  the  couch  to  see  whether  his  master 
slept  or  lay  awake,  he  found  that  the  Buddha 
"  had  fallen  into  the  profound  ecstasy  of  the 
elect  from  which  no  man  returns  or  is  born 
again  :  no,  not  one." 

Gautama  the  Buddha  was  a  man  of  an  un- 
usually high  order  of  intellect,  but  his  goodness 
and  charity,  as  Lafont  and  others  have  pointed 
out,  far  outweighed  his  merely  intellectual 
qualities.  His  long  years  of  study  and  medi- 
tation led  him  to  the  conclusion  that  penance 
was  useless  and  that  science  was  available  only 
to  a  few  select  minds.  Then,  with  the  object 
of  setting  common  mortals  on  the  road  to 
"  salvation "  (in  the  Buddhist  sense  of  this 
word,  i.e.,  Nirvana,  or  utter  extinction),  and  of 
sparing  them  as  much  as  possible  from  the 
sufferings  which  are  necessarily  inflicted  by  life 
in  this  world  (or  in  our  next  existence  after 
our  reincarnation),  he  established  his  system  of 
morality  on  the  basis  of  a  material  life ;  the 
repression  of  the  senses,  the  purity  of  body 
and  "soul,"  and  a  spirit  of  universal  charity, 
developing  human  sensitiveness  to  the  extent 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST          73 

of  making  his  followers  respect  the  lives  of 
even  the  most  insignificant  animals — because, 
of  course,  even  a  mouse  or  a  flea  might  once 
have  been  a  fellow-creature,  reincarnated  in 
this  form  owing  to  his  misdeeds  in  a  former 
life.  If,  therefore,  we  do  not  find  the  meta- 
physics of  Buddhism  developed  to  the  same 
extent  as  the  metaphysics  of  Brahmanism,  or 
even  of  Christianity,  we  must  remember  that 
this  is  not  due  to  insusceptibility  of  develop- 
ment, but  merely  because  the  founder  of  the 
Buddhist  faith  paid  more  attention  to  certain 
other  qualities  which  he  deemed  of  greater 
benefit  for  the  human  race. 

Nor  does  Buddha  think  it  necessary  to 
concern  himself  about  the  Cosmos  :  it  is  not 
worth  while,  in  his  opinion,  trying  to  find 
out  how  the  world  came  into  existence.  He 
would  sternly  restrict  himself  to  an  explanation 
of  his  belief.  a  My  law  is  a  law  of  mercy  for 
all.  And  what  kind  of  a  law  is  this?  It  is  a 
law  under  which  the  very  beggars  can  become 
saints."  (A  far  cry,  this,  from  the  stringent, 
aristocratic  caste  system  of  the  Brahmans,  who 
refused  to  be  polluted  with  the  lower  orders !) 
But  even  the  beggar  must  first  show  himself 
capable  of  self-control.  "  Let  him  not  despise 
what  he  has  received,  or  ever  envy  others  :  a 


74  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

mendicant  who  envies  others  does  not  obtain 
peace  of  mind."  '  <f  For  self  is  the  law  of  self, 
self  is  the  refuge  of  self;  therefore  curb  thy- 
self as  a  merchant  curbs  his  horse." 2 

At  other  times  the  Buddha's  disciples 
torment  him  with  questions  about  eternity 
and  definitions  of  the  ego.  But  he  refuses  to 
be  drawn.  "  Why  has  not  the  Buddha  taught 
his  followers  whether  the  world  is  finite  or 
infinite,  whether  the  saint  continues  to  live  or 
not  in  the  Beyond  ?  Because  the  mere  know- 
ledge of  these  things  does  not  lead  to  any 
progress  in  sanctity,  because  such  knowledge 
does  not  necessarily  conduce  to  spiritual  peace 
and  illumination.  But  the  Buddha  does  teach 
that  which  leads  to  spiritual  peace  and  illumina- 
tion :  he  teaches  the  truth  about  pain,  the  truth 
about  the  origin  of  pain,  about  the  suppression 
of  pain,  about  the  path  leading  to  the  suppres- 
sion of  pain.  Hence,  let  that  which  has  not 
been  revealed  by  me  remain  unrevealed,  and 
that  which  has  been  revealed  by  me  remain 
revealed  !  "  No  explanation  of  the  ego  can 
be  had  from  him.  "  The  mind  has  come  into 
existence  by  means  of  unfathomable  mystery, 
and  it  is  useless  to  try  to  discover  what  this 

1  Dhammapadha :   Deal's  translation,  p.  22. 

2  Ibid.,  page  24. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         75 

mystery  is.  The  monk  who  is  striving  to 
secure  the  safety  of  his  soul  has  something  else 
to  do." 

Indeed,  this  attitude  of  the  teacher  partly 
serves  to  explain  the  success  of  Buddhism 
among  different  races.  Gautama's  aim  was 
to  found  a  practical  morality  on  the  basis  of 
material  existence  and  self-control.  There  are 
many  differences  in  the  principles  upon  which 
professedly  Buddhistic  nations  have  erected 
their  own  religious  structure  ;  but  in  all  cases 
the  faith  seems  to  have  exercised  a  remarkable 
influence  for  good  in  the  populations  among 
which  it  penetrated.  The  activity  of  the 
Buddhist  missionaries  has  only  within  recent 
years  become  properly  known.  Not  long  after 
the  master's  death  earnest  disciples  were 
spreading  the  faith  in  Thibet.  In  a  generation 
or  two  converts  had  been  made  in  Ceylon, 
Burmah,  China,  and  Tartary.  In  later  years 
the  Chinese  carried  the  new  doctrine  into 
Japan,  where,  as  we  shall  see,  it  absorbed  the 
old  gods.  The  activity  of  these  enthusiasts, 
however,  did  not  end  here.  With  all  the  zeal 
and  none  of  the  intolerance  displayed  by  the 
Jesuits  after  the  founding  of  their  order,  the 
Buddhist  disciples  spread  over  the  known 
world.  The  faith  was  propagated  so  far  away 


76      RELIGIONS  AND  PHILOSOPHIES 

as  Egypt  and  Abyssinia  ;  and  Leon  de  Rosny, 
Lafont,  and  other  eminent  authorities,  are 
inclined  to  hold  that  traces  of  it  were  found 
long  afterwards  among  the  natives  of  Mexico. 
Places  so  far  apart  as  Australia  and  the  Balkans 
appear  to  have  fallen  under  the  influence  of 
the  Buddhists  even  so  early  as  the  time  when 
Pontius  Pilate  was  just  setting  out  for  the  East 
to  take  up  his  appointment  as  fifth  Roman 
Procurator  of  Judaea  and  Samaria. 

If  the  metaphysical  part  of  Buddhism, 
however,  was  not  fully  developed  by  the 
founder,  there  is  no  doubt  that  it  has  exercised 
a  powerful  influence  on  men  of  different 
calibre.  The  "  intellectuals "  of  Siam  and 
Japan  look  upon  Buddhism  at  the  present  day 
as  a  philosophy  rather  than  as  a  faith  ;  but  the 
best-known  example  of  intellectual  Buddhism 
is,  of  course,  the  German  philosopher,  Arthur 
Schopenhauer. 


CHAPTER  V 

Buddhism  continued.  Nirvana  —  Transmigration  — 
Commandments  for  monks  and  laymen — Relics  of 
Buddha  —  Distinction  between  Buddhism  and 
Christianity — King  Asoka  the  Buddhist — The  Edicts 
of  Asoka — Bureaucracy  foiled — Buddhistic  writings. 

ACCORDING  to  the  Buddhist  teaching,  every- 
thing corporeal  is  material.  It  is,  therefore, 
non-permanent,  carrying  within  itself  as  it  does 
the  elements  of  dissolution.  So  long  as  man  is 
linked  to  the  material  world  he  will  be  possessed 
of  constantly  unsatisfied  desires,  weariness, 
pain,  and  care.  All  this  cannot  be  overcome 
by  a  form  of  penance  which  merely  punishes 
the  body  ;  it  is  a  man's  evil  heart  which  binds 
him  down  to  this  bodily  life.  Nor  yet  does  it 
make  much  difference  if  he  endeavours  to 
follow  a  virtuous  path  ;  for  a  certain  proportion 
of  evil  is  Jeft,  and  this  fact  itself  ensures  that 
a  virtuous  man  will  merely  lead  a  higher  form 
of  material  life  after  his  re-birth.  What  is 
necessary  is  to  free  man  entirely  from  all  evil, 
which  alone  will  enable  him  to  attain  Nirvana, 
i.e.,  complete  annihilation.  The  bases  of  the 
Buddhist  creed,  drawn  up  by  the  founder 
himself,  are  contained  in  the  "  four  great 

77 


78  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

truths/'    which    have    been    summed    up    by 
various  authorities  : — 

(1)  Misery  invariably  accompanies  existence. 

(2)  Every    type    of  existence,    whether    of 

man  or    of    animals,    results     from 
passion  or  desire. 

(3)  There    is    no    freedom  from    existence 

but  by  the  annihilation  of  desire. 

(4)  Desire  may  be  destroyed  by  following 

the       "  eight      paths "     leading     to 

Nirvana. 

These  u eight"  paths  are  right  views,  right 
feelings,  right  words,  right  behaviour,  right 
exertion,  right  obedience,  right  memory,  and 
right  meditation.  The  natural  state  of  the 
individual,  as  has  been  mentioned  a  few  pages 
before,  is  to  be  born  again  and  again,  each 
time  in  a  fresh  incarnation,  but  seeing  that 
misery  invariably  accompanies  all  existence, 
the  great  object  of  the  individual  should  be 
to  act  in  such  a  way  in  his  present  life  as  not 
to  necessitate  his  being  born  again.  The  only 
thing  permanent  is  the  individual's  "  karma," 
i.e.,  his  actions  and  thoughts  in  this  life,  which 
decide  which  form  his  incarnation  shall  take 
in  his  future  existence.  This  notion,  which 
is  common  to  Brahraanism  and  Buddhism, 
though  greatly  accentuated  in  the  latter  faith, 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         79 

may  well  explain  to  us  why  Eastern  peoples,  like 
theHindoos,Chinese,and  Japanese,  showso  little 
fear  of  death  and  set  so  little  value  upon  life  ;  for 
they  cherish  the  belief  that  the  soul,  if  taken 
away  from  its  present  dwelling,  will  at  once  find 
another,  and  there  is  always  the  possibility  that 
the  new  one  will  be  better  than  the  old. 

When  developing  these  eight  theoretical 
paths  to  Nirvana  into  a  set  of  precepts  appli- 
cable to  everyday  life,  the  Buddha  looked  upon 
men  as  being  divided  into  two  classes,  the 
monks  and  teachers  (Sramanas)  and  the  laymen 
engaged  in  ordinary  employment.  Although 
the  latter  have  too  many  ties  to  life  to  secure 
emancipation  from  it  at  the  end  of  their 
present  existence,  there  are  nevertheless  certain 
rules  which  are  binding  upon  them  as  well 
as  upon  the  monks.  They  may  not  kill,  steal, 
lie,  commit  adultery,  or  become  intoxicated. 
The  monks,  in  addition  to  obeying  these  five 
commandments,  must  bear  in  mind  five  others  : 
to  abstain  from  all  food  after  midday,  from 
songs  and  dances,  etc.,  from  personal  adorn- 
ments, from  luxurious  couches,  and  from  ac- 
cepting presents  of  gold  and  silver  for  their 
personal  use.  There  are  also  many  severe 
monastic  rules.  The  Buddhist  monks  must 
dress  in  rags,  which  they  must  sew  together 


80  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

themselves,  and  for  a  part  of  the  year  they 
are  compelled  to  live  in  forests,  sitting  on 
a  carpet  under  the  shadow  of  a  tree,  being 
forbidden  by  the  regulations  even  to  lie  down 
to  sleep.  They  must  also  exhibit  charity, 
benevolence  and  kindness  to  animals. 

Although  the  Buddha  is  supposed  by  his 
followers  to  have  attained  to  Nirvana  and  thus 
to  be  no  longer  in  existence,  statues  of  him 
form  the  central  object  of  all  Buddhist  temples. 
Here  he  continues  to  be  worshipped,  and 
incense,  flowers  and  fruits  are  offered  to  him 
daily.  This  does  not  necessarily  mean  idolatry 
of  any  kind,  however,  for  the  disciples  of  the 
great  teacher  never  actually  looked  upon  him 
as  a  god.  Gautama  was  merely  the  latest 
Buddha,  the  Buddha  of  the  present  cycle.  It 
is  believed  that  there  were  twenty-four  Buddhas 
previously  to  his  appearance  on  earth,  and  that, 
when  at  the  end  of  the  present  cycle  of 
existence  all  things  are  reduced  to  their  primal 
elements  and  another  world  springs  up,  a 
further  Buddha  will  be  born  to  preach  the 
gospel  of  Nirvana  in  a  new  universe.  It  follows 
therefore  that  the  service  celebrated  in  the 
Buddhist  temples  is  not  worship  in  the 
Christian  or  Judaic  sense  of  the  word,  but 
is  merely  commemorative,  the  sight  of  the 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         81 

numerous  relics  of  the  Illuminated  One  serv- 
ing as  an  encouragement  for  men  to  follow  in 
the  path  which  he  trod  centuries  ago.  Among 
these  relics^  by  the  way,  is  said  to  be  one  of 
Buddha's  teeth.  This  is  a  piece  of  ivory  about 
an  inch  long.  It  is  preserved  in  Ceylon  and 
is  very  rarely  exhibited. 

It  is  clear  from  the  Buddha's  own  writings 
and  sayings,  and  from  the  traditions  which 
have  come  down  to  us  respecting  him,  that 
his  learning,  however  it  may  have  been  ac- 
quired, was  superior  to  that  of  most  men  of 
his  age.  His  works  show  traces  of  profound 
study  ;  similes,  metaphors,  analogies  come  aptly 
to  him.  Whatever  the  modern  philosopher 
may  think  of  Buddhism  as  a  stage  in  the 
solution  of  world-problems,  it  must  not  be 
overlooked  that  every  religion  does  not  re- 
present the  highest  form  of  a  philosophical 
system,  but  the  lowest  form  ;  for,  in  order  to 
succeed  and  gain  ground,  it  must  appeal  to 
the  unintelligent  and  unthinking  masses. 
4  *  Every  law-giver,"  says  Lafont,  "  must  make 
an  abstract  of  his  intelligence  and  wisdom  to 
find  a  formula  applicable  to  all,  and  it  is  in 
this  sense  that  he  must  be  judged  superior 
to  his  doctrine." 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  the  salient  characteristic  of 


82  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

Gautama  is  goodness.  Touched  by  compassion 
for  the  misfortunes  of  humanity,  he  gave  up 
his  role  of  philosopher  and  reasoner ;  greatly 
affected  by  the  sight  of  the  low  castes,  the 
innumerable  woes  they  had  to  endure  in  this 
life,  and  their  long  successions  of  painful  trans- 
formations in  lives  to  come,  this  Brahman 
and  prince  endeavoured  to  find  a  formula 
which  should  save  all  men.  In  this  he  bears 
a  striking  resemblance  to  the  Christ  of  five 
centuries  later,  and  the  likeness  between  the  two 
is  increased  when  we  remember  that  Buddha 
called  round  him,  not  the  rich  men  and  the 
nobles,  but  the  poor  and  lowly.  Unlike  Christ, 
however,  Buddha  did  not  openly  and  covertly 
appeal  to  the  cupidity  of  the  poor  and  their 
envy  of  the  rich,  thus  starting  a  class  warfare 
which  has  endured  in  Christian  countries  to 
this  day.  It  may  possibly,  for  example,  be  as 
difficult  for  a  rich  man  to  enter  the  kingdom 
of  heaven  as  for  a  camel  to  pass  through  the 
eye  of  a  needle ;  but  Buddha  saw  no  reason 
for  mentioning  this  fact  and  using  it  as  a 
weapon  of  religious  propaganda.  The  fewer 
man's  wants,  the  better,  was  the  doctrine  of 
the  Indian  teacher,  and  he  preached  it  with 
such  good  effect  that  the  Buddhist  monks  beg 
their  bread  even  at  the  present  time,  and  are 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         83 

not  permitted  to  hold  any  personal  property 
beyond  what  is  absolutely  necessary  for  the 
purposes  of  their  religion.  A  state  of  things 
in  which  the  Church  would  be  allowed  to  hold 
the  best  of  the  land,  and  to  play  a  foremost 
part  in  things  political  in  addition  to  things 
spiritual,  as  in  modern  Spain  and  mediaeval 
England,  would  be  impossible  under  Buddhism. 
Where  spiritual  matters  are  concerned, 
indeed,  the  Buddhist  is  stronger  than  the 
Christian.  The  introduction  of  a  Saviour 
into  a  faith  to  perform  tasks  for  the  followers 
of  the  faith  which  they  are  unable  to  carry  out 
for  themselves,  is  always  a  decided  symptom  of 
psychological  weakness.  The  Christian  cannot 
"  save  "  himself — his  salvation  can  be  ensured 
only  through  the  medium  of  his  Saviour.  The 
Buddhistic  doctrine,  on  the  other  hand,  de- 
pends entirely  on  the  self-reliance  of  the  man. 
No  outside  intervention  or  pleading  is  of  the 
slightest  avail  :  the  Buddhist  must  save  him- 
self; he  must,  and  can,  attain  to  Nirvana 
through  his  own  unaided  efforts.  This  strik- 
ing distinction  between  the  two  beliefs  has  been 
clearly  summed  up  by  the  greatest  psychologist 
and  philosopher  since  Aristotle  : 

BUDDHA     versus    CHRIST. — Among    the    Nihilistic    re- 
ligions,   Christianity    and    Buddhism    must    always    be 


84  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

sharply  distinguished.  Buddhism  is  the  expression  of  a 
fine  evening,  perfectly  sweet  and  mild — it  is  a  sort  of 
gratitude  towards  all  that  lies  hidden,  including  that  which 
it  entirely  lacks,  viz.,  bitterness,  disillusionment,  and  re- 
sentment. Finally,  it  possesses  lofty  intellectual  love  ;  it 
has  got  over  all  the  subtlety  of  philosophical  contradictions, 
and  is  even  resting  after  it,  though  it  is  precisely  from  that 
source  that  it  derives  its  intellectual  glory  and  its  glow  as 
of  a  sunset  (it  originated  in  the  higher  classes). 

Christianity  is  a  degenerative  movement,  consisting  of 
all  kinds  of  decaying  and  excremental  elements  :  it  is  not 
the  expression  of  the  downfall  of  a  race,  it  is,  from  the 
root,  an  agglomeration  of  all  the  morbid  elements  which 
are  mutually  attractive  and  which  gravitate  to  one  another. 
It  is  therefore  not  a  national  religion,  not  determined  by 
race  :  it  appeals  to  the  disinherited  everywhere  ;  it  con- 
sists of  a  foundation  of  resentment  against  all  that  is 
successful  and  dominant  :  it  is  in  need  of  a  symbol  which 
represents  the  damnation  of  everything  successful  and 
dominant.  It  is  opposed  to  every  form  of  intellectual 
movement,  to  all  philosophy  :  it  takes  up  the  cudgels  for 
idiots,  and  utters  a  curse  upon  all  intellect.  Resentment 
against  those  who  are  gifted,  learned,  intellectually  inde- 
pendent :  in  all  these  it  suspects  the  element  of  success 
and  domination.1 

Another  contrast  between  Buddhism  and 
Christianity  is  well  put  by  Nietzsche  : — 

In  Buddhism  this  thought  prevails  :  "  All  passions, 
everything  which  creates  emotions  and  leads  to  blood,  is  a 
call  to  action " — to  this  extent  alone  are  its  believers 
warned  against  evil.  For  action  has  no  sense,  it  merely 
binds  one  to  existence.  All  existence,  however,  has  no 
sense.  Evil  is  interpreted  as  that  which  leads  to  irra- 
tionalism  :  to  the  affirmation  of  means  whose  end  is  denied. 
A  road  to  nonentity  is  the  desideratum,  hence  all 
emotional  impulses  are  regarded  with  horror.  For 

1  Nietzsche,  The  Will  to  Power,  i.  Aph.  154., 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         85 

instance  :  "  On  no  account  seek  after  revenge  !  Be  the 
enemy  of  no  one  !  " — The  Hedonism  of  the  weary  finds 
its  highest  expression  here.  Nothing  is  more  utterly 
foreign  to  Buddhism  than  the  Jewish  fanaticism  of  St 
Paul  :  nothing  could  be  more  contrary  to  its  instinct  than 
the  tension,  fire  and  unrest  of  the  religious  man,  and, 
above  all,  that  form  of  sensuality  which  Christianity 
sanctifies  with  the  name  "  Love."  Moreover,  it  is  the 
cultured  and  very  intellectual  classes  who  find  blessedness 
in  Buddhism :  a  race  wearied  and  besotted  with  centuries 
of  philosophical  quarrels,  but  not  beneath  all  culture,  as 
those  classes  were  from  which  Christianity  sprang.  In 
the  Buddhistic  ideal,  there  is  essentially  an  emancipation 
from  good  and  evil  :  a  very  subtle  suggestion  of  a  Beyond 
to  all  morality  is  thought  out  in  its  teaching,  and  this 
Beyond  is  supposed  to  be  compatible  with  perfection — 
the  condition  being,  that  even  good  actions  are  only  needed 
pro  tern.,  merely  as  a  means, — that  is  to  say,  in  order  to  be 
free  from  all  action.1 

The  philosophical  side  of  a  religion  consists 
of  a  number  of  doctrines,  which  form  its 
dogma ;  and  there  is  also  a  certain  ritual 
to  be  carried  out  at  regular  intervals,  which 
forms  the  cult  of  the  religion.  At  the 
inception  of  a  faith  its  cult  is  extremely 
simple  and  its  dogmas  few  in  number.  Then, 
by  a  regular  process,  new  theories  are  developed, 
the  ritual  is  modified  accordingly,  and  learned 
priests  bring  about  changes  in  the  metaphysical 
side.  As  the  result  of  such  constant  progres- 
sion, a  religion  in  time  differs  a  great  deal 
from  its  original  form.  We  have  only  to  turn 

1  The  Will  to  Power,  i.  Aph.   155. 


86  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

to  Christianity  for  an  example  of  this  continual 
process  of  transformation. 

After  Buddha's  death,  too,  various  changes 
were  made  in  the  form  of  his  doctrines. 
Disciples  wrangled  with  one  another  as  to 
the  precise  meaning  to  be  attached  to  the 
master's  parables  and  definitions,  and  the  faith, 
scarcely  able  for  a  few  years  to  hold  its  own 
against  Brahmanism  in  Gautama's  own  district, 
seemed  in  danger  of  being  split  up  into  a 
number  of  jarring  sects,  like  Christianity  at 
the  present  day.  Immediately  after  the  Buddha's 
death  a  council  was  held  and  a  certain  number 
of  doctrines  standardised,  these  proceedings 
being  confirmed  by  a  second  council  held  about 
a  century  later.  But,  even  then,  Buddhism 
might  have  flickered  out  had  it  not  been  for 
the  exertions  of  a  ruler  who  is  venerated  even 
to-day  wherever  Buddhists  are  to  be  found. 
To  King  Asoka  belongs  the  credit  of  having 
elevated  Buddhism  from  the  position  of  a  sect 
to  the  position  of  a  state  religion. 

This  King  Asoka  was  the  grandson  of  the 
famous  Chandragupta,  who  is  known  to 
historians  as  the  founder  of  the  Northern 
Empire  of  India.  He  was  a  contemporary 
of  Alexander  the  Great.  A  warrior  and 
Brahman,  uniting  the  virtues  of  the  two 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         87 

higher  castes,  Asoka,  after  a  series  of  brilliant 
campaigns,  added  the  kingdoms  of  Bengal 
and  Orissa  to  his  dominions  shortly  after 
having  ascended  his  own  throne  of  Magadha 
(the  modern  Behar)  in  273  B.C.  Determined 
to  let  nothing  stand  in  the  way  of  his  ambition, 
he  had  his  brothers  assassinated  in  order  that 
he  might  enjoy  the  sole  power,  and  he  is  charged 
with  other  crimes  of  an  equally  serious  nature. 
As  in  the  case  of  Gautama,  however,  Asoka, 
towards  middle  life,  seems  to  have  been  over- 
come by  a  feeling  of  pessimism.  After  long 
meditation  on  the  sins,  iniquities,  and  vanities 
of  the  world,  he  was  converted  to  Buddhism, 
and  at  once  proceeded  to  summon  a  council — 
the  third — in  order  that  the  essential  doctrines 
of  the  faith  might  be  properly  defined.  As 
Mr  Vincent  A.  Smith,  his  best  biographer, 
has  pointed  out,1  King  Asoka  confined  his 
efforts  to  drawing  up  a  practical  code  of  morals, 
and  did  not  base  his  teaching  upon  any  meta- 
physical or  theological  principle.  The  council 
appears  to  have  been  called  together  about 
260  or  259  B.C.,  i.e.y  nearly  two  centuries  after 
the  Buddha's  death.  About  257  B.C.  King 
Asoka  began  his  practice  of  inscribing  his 

1  See  his  Asoka^  the  Buddhist  Emperor  (Oxford  Univ.    Press,   1909), 
chaps,  i.  and  ii. 


88  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

Buddhistic  precepts  upon  rocks  and  pillars, 
and  it  is  from  these  edicts  that  we  have  gained 
a  great  deal  of  information  regarding  practical 
Buddhism.  The  Rock  and  Pillar  Edicts  of 
the  Buddhist  emperor  are  found  principally  in 
Rajputana,  Southern  Behar,  Mysore,  Peshawar, 
Madras,  Delhi  (U.P.),  and  Northern  Behar. 
The  Sarnath  Pillar  Edict  was  discovered  a 
few  years  ago  at  Sarnath,  about  three  miles 
to  the  north  of  Benares.  Inscriptions  on  the 
roofs  of  caves  have  also  been  discovered  in 
the  Barabar  Hills  of  the  Gaya  district  of 
Southern  Behar.  Mr  V.  A.  Smith,  the  author 
of  the  biography  of  King  Asoka  just  referred 
to,  has  edited  what  is  probably  the  best  edition 
of  the  Edicts,  and  a  few  typical  quotations 
cannot  fail  to  be  of  interest  : 

Even  by  the  small  man  who  exerts  himself,  immense 
heavenly  bliss  may  be  won.  (Minor  Rock  Edicts,  I.) 

Here  in  the  capital  no  animal  may  be  slaughtered  for 
sacrifice,  nor  may  holiday  feasts  be  held,  because  his 
sacred  and  gracious  Majesty  the  King  sees  manifold  evil 
in  holiday  feasts,  although  holiday  feasts  in  certain  places 
are  meritorious  in  the  sight  of  his  Majesty  the  King. 
(Rock  Edict  I.,  entitled  :  "The  Sacredness  of  Life.") 

Everywhere  in  his  dominions  his  sacred  and  gracious 
Majesty  the  King  has  made  two  kinds  of  curative  arrange- 
ments, to  wit,  curative  arrangements  for  men  and  curative 
arrangements  for  beasts.  Medicinal  herbs  also,  medicinal 
for  man  and  medicinal  for  beast,  wherever  they  were 
lacking,  have  been  imported  and  planted  ;  roots  also  and 
fruits,  wherever  they  were  lacking,  everywhere  have  been 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         89 

imported  and  planted.  On  the  roads  both  wells  have 
been  dug  and  trees  planted  for  the  enjoyment  of  man 
and  beast.  (Rock  Edict  II.) 

Everywhere  in  my  dominions  the  officials  and  the 
commissioners  for  five  years  must  proceed  on  circuit 
as  well  as  for  their  other  duties  as  for  this  special  purpose, 
namely,  to  proclaim  the  Law  of  Piety,  to  wit  :  a 
meritorious  thing  is  the  hearkening  to  father  and  mother  ; 
a  meritorious  thing  is  liberality  to  friends,  acquaintances, 
relatives,  Brahmans,  and  ascetics ;  a  meritorious  thing 
it  is  to  abstain  from  slaughter  of  living  creatures  ;  a 
meritorious  thing  it  is  to  spend  little  and  store  little. 
(Rock  Edict  III.) 

People  perform  ceremonies  on  occasions  of  sickness, 
the  weddings  of  sons,  the  weddings  of  daughters,  the 
birth  of  children,  the  departure  on  journeys.  On  these 
and  other  similar  occasions  people  perform  various 
ceremonies.  But  at  such  times  the  womenkind  perform 
many,  manifold,  trivial,  and  worthless  ceremonies. 

Ceremonies  certainly  have  to  be  performed,  although 
that  sort  bears  little  fruit.  This  sort,  however — the 
ceremonial  of  piety — bears  great  fruit.  In  it  are  included 
the  proper  treatment  of  slaves  and  servants,  honour  to 
teachers,  gentleness  towards  living  creatures,  and  liberality 
towards  ascetics  and  Brahmans.  These  things,  and  others 
of  the  same  kind,  are  called  the  ceremonial  of  piety.  .  .  . 
By  what  sort  of  ceremonies  is  the  desired  end  attained  ? 
for  the  ceremonial  of  this  world  is  of  doubtful  efficacy  ; 
perchance  it  may  accomplish  the  desired  end ;  perhaps  it  may 
not,  and  its  effect  is  merely  of  this  world.  The  ceremonial 
of  piety,  on  the  contrary,  is  not  temporal  ;  for,  even  if  it 
fails  to  attain  the  desired  end  in  this  world,  it  certainly 
begets  endless  merit  in  the  other  world.  (Rock  Edict  IX.) 

The  Kalingas  were  conquered  by  his  sacred  and  gracious 
Majesty  the  King  when  he  had  been  consecrated  eight 
years.  One  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  people  were 
thence  carried  away  captive,  one  hundred  thousand  were 
there  slain,  and  many  times  that  number  perished. 
Directly  after  the  annexation  of  the  Kalingas  began  his 


90  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

sacred  Majesty's  zealous  protection  of  the  law  of  piety,  his 
love  of  that  law,  and  his  giving  instruction  in  that  law 
(dharma).  Thus  arose  his  sacred  Majesty's  remorse  for 
having  conquered  the  Kalingas,  because  the  conquest  of  a 
country  previously  unconquered  involves  the  slaughter, 
death  and  carrying  away  captive  of  the  people.  That  is 
a  matter  of  profound  sorrow  and  regret  to  his  sacred 
Majesty.  .  .  .  And  for  this  purpose  has  this  pious  Edict 
been  written,  in  order  that  my  sons  and  grandsons,  who 
may  be,  should  not  regard  it  as  their  duty  to  conquer  a 
new  conquest.  If,  perchance,  they  become  engaged  in  a 
conquest  by  arms,  they  should  take  their  own  patience 
and  gentleness,  and  regard  as  the  only  true  conquest  the 
conquest  won  by  piety.  That  avails  for  both  this  world 
and  the  next.  Let  all  joy  be  in  effort,  because  that  avails 
for  both  this  world  and  the  next.  (Rock  Edict  XIII.) 

All  men  are  my  children,  and  just  as  I  desire  for  my 
children  that  they  may  enjoy  every  kind  of  prosperity  and 
happiness  in  both  this  world  and  the  next,  so  also  I  desire 
the  same  for  all  men.  (Kalinga  Edict  I.) 

With  certain  natural  dispositions,  success  [towards  a 
religious  end]  is  impossible,  to  wit,  envy,  lack  of  persever- 
ance, harshness,  impatience,  want  of  application,  laziness, 
indolence.  You  must  desire  that  such  dispositions  be  not 
yours.  (Kalinga  Edict  II.) 

This  world  and  the  next  are  hard  to  secure  save  by 
intense  love  of  the  Law  of  Piety,  intense  self-examina- 
tion, intense  obedience,  intense  dread  and  intense  effort. 
(Pillar  Edict  I.). 

After  I  had  been  consecrated  twenty-six  years,  the 
following  species  were  declared  exempt  from  slaughter, 
to  wit :  parrots,  starlings,  ducks,  geese,  bats,  queen-ants, 
female  tortoises.  .  .  .  The  living  must  not  be  fed  with 
the  living.  (Pillar  Edict  V.) 

After  I  had  been  consecrated  twelve  years  I  caused 
pious  Edicts  to  be  written  for  the  welfare  and  happiness 
of  mankind,  with  the  intent  that  they,  giving  up  their  old 
courses,  might  attain  growth  in  piety  one  way  or  another. 
Thus,  aiming  at  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  mankind, 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         91 

with  that  object  I  devote  my  attention  alike  to  my 
relatives,  to  persons  near,  and  to  persons  afar  off.  .  .  . 
For  all  denominations  are  reverenced  by  me  with  various 
forms  of  reverence.1  Nevertheless,  this  personal  adher- 
ence to  one's  own  creed  is  the  chief  thing,  in  my  opinion. 
(Pillar  Edict  VI.) 

The  growth  of  piety  .  .  .  has  been  effected  by  two- 
fold means,  to  wit,  pious  regulations  and  meditation.  Of 
these  two  means,  however,  pious  regulations  are  of  small 
account,  whereas  meditation  is  superior.  (Pillar  Edict  VII.) 

King  Asoka,  however,  was  not  content  with 
merely  setting  forth  the  Buddha's  doctrines  in 
a  permanent  form.  He  advanced  the  faith 
enormously,  as  already  mentioned,  by  making  it 
a  state  religion  ;  but  his  enthusiasm  did  not 
stop  here.  By  his  orders  trained  missionaries 
were  sent  to  all  parts  of  India  and  Ceylon, 
and  he  extended  his  operations  even  further. 
Antiochus  Theos,*  King  of  Syria;  Ptolemy 
Philadelphus,  King  of  Egypt  ;  Magas,  King 
of  Cyrene ;  Antigonus  Gonatas,  King  of 
Macedonia,  and  Alexander,  King  of  Epirus, 
were  all  courteously  invited  to  give  up  their 
false  gods  in  favour  of  the  new  faith  expounded 
by  the  Indian  emperor,  though,  unfortunately, 
records  are  wanting  to  show  in  what  precise 
spirit  this  invitation  was  received. 

When  on  the  subject  of  King  Asoka,  it 
should  not  be  forgotten  that  to  his  reign 

1  This  instance    of  toleration,  two  centuries  and  a  half  before  the 
beginning  of  our  era,   is  surely  worthy  of  notice. 


92  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

belongs  the  first  recorded  attempt  at  bureau- 
cratic Socialism.  In  order  that  the  "  rules  of 
piety  "  might  be  properly  enforced,  a  swarm  of 
officials — as  mentioned  in  one  of  the  Edicts 
just  quoted — were  appointed  to  visit  every 
household  in  the  name  of  the  emperor  and  to 
see  that  the  religious  functions  ordered  were 
duly  carried  out.  This,  however,  caused  even 
the  mild  Hindoo  to  turn  ;  for  scenes,  it  would 
appear,  took  place  resembling  that  which  led 
to  Wat  Tyler's  memorable  dispute  with  a  tax- 
collector,  and  after  the  emperor's  death  in 
232  B.C.  there  was  an  insurrection  which  put 
an  end  for  ever  to  the  odious  system  of 
personal  inspection.  It  may  be  worth  while 
mentioning  this  two-thousand-year-old  incident 
as  a  warning  to  the  socialistically  inclined. 

Apart  from  King  Asoka's  propagation  of  the 
faith,  we  have  a  collection  of  sacred  Buddhistic 
writings,  known  as  the  Tripitaka,  or  the  Three 
Baskets. 

(1)  The  Sutra-Pitaka,  containing  the  Sutras. 
This  is  the  essential  part  of  the  Buddhist  teach- 
ing, which  is  set  forth  in  maxims,  apophthegms, 
short  sermons  and  parables.    This  book  may  be 
in  the  hands  of  either  the  monks  or  the  laity. 

(2)  The  Vinaya-Pitaka,  containing  the  rules 
of  conduct  of  members  of  the  Order. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         93 

(3)  The  Abhidharma,  or  writings  dealing 
with  the  more  profound  metaphysical  doctrines 
of  Buddhism. 

Buddhism  is  distinguished  from  all  other 
religions,  especially,  of  course,  Judaism,  Chris- 
tianity, and  Mohammedanism,  by  the  fact  that 
all  these  writings  do  not  profess  to  be  inspired 
from  a  supernatural  source.  Buddhism  entirely 
rejects  the  doctrine  that  there  is  any  such 
source.  The  rules  of  conduct  set  forth  by  the 
master  are  the  results  of  long  study  and  medita- 
tion, and  they  may  be  followed  by  any  one. 
Unlike  Christianity,  as  has  previously  been 
mentioned,  there  is  no  Saviour  :  man  must 
depend  upon  himself  alone  to  attain  supreme 
moral  perfection,  and  when  he  has  done  so  he 
himself  becomes  a  Buddha,  an  enlightened  one. 
Truth  is  eternal ;  and  it  is  by  his  own  intuition 
that  a  Buddhist  knows  when  he  has  arrived  at 
the  highest  stage  of  perfection.  Hence,  pos- 
sibly, the  eagerness  with  which  the  Chinese 
and  Japanese  welcomed  Buddhism,  and  the 
ease  with  which  they  adapted  themselves  to  it 
and  it  to  themselves.  For  these  yellow  nations 
are  noted  for  having  passed  through  years  of 
evolution  without  having  formed  the  conception 
of  a  supernatural  deity,  basing  their  conduct 
merely  on  reason  and  codes  of  morals  in  accord- 


94  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 


ance  with  rules  laid  down  by  a  long  line  of 
thinkers,  of  whom  Confucius,  for  example,  far 
from  being  the  first  or  even  one  of  the  earliest, 
is  merely  the  representative  type. 

Without  setting  science  aside  or  frowning 
upon  it,  Gautama's  teaching  rests  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  virtue  is  superior  to  it  ;  that  virtue 
consists  in  doing  good,  and  that  it  is  the  same 
for  all  men,  independently  of  riches  or  poverty, 
knowledge  or  ignorance,  suited  equally  to  the 
practical  affairs  of  life  and  to  preparations  for 
Nirvana.  This  principle  was  a  radical  departure 
from  the  teaching  of  the  Brahmans,  in  that  it 
proclaimed  every  man  to  be  equal  before  the 
moral  law  (as  Christianity  proclaimed  every 
man  to  be  equal  in  the  sight  of  God),  together 
with  the  superiority  of  the  virtuous  man  over 
the  man  of  wisdom — another  resemblance  to 
Christianity. 

Virtue,  of  course,  included  sexual  chastity. 
Life  was  miserable  for  every  one,  and  the  best 
way  to  escape  it  was  to  abolish  it  as  far  as  pos- 
sible. But  women's  temptations  induced  men 
to  carry  life  onwards,  and  the  Master  disliked 
the  female  sex  accordingly.  Buddha's  great 
European  disciple,  Schopenhauer,  shows  numer- 
ous traces  of  this  hatred  of  womenkind.  The 
great  pessimist's  bitterness  on  this  particular 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST          95 

point  is  well  known,  yet  his  great  predecessor 
was  just  as  bitter,  though  in  Buddha's  case  the 
bitterness  is  scattered  rather  than  concentrated. 
Buddha  had  a  keen  eye  for  female  beauty,  but 
the  sight  of  it  merely  awoke  sad  thoughts  in 
him,  instead  of  provoking  his  passions.  Par- 
ables are  not  wanting  to  express  the  imperman- 
ency  of  beauty  as  well  as  of  everything  else. 

Once  when  the  Buddha  was  residing  on  the  Gridhrakuta 
mountain,  near  Rajagriha,  there  was  a  certain  famous 
courtesan  in  the  city,  called  Pundari,  or  Padma,  most 
beautiful  in  form  and  incomparable  for  grace.  This  woman 
wearied  of  her  mode  of  life,  and  resolved  to  join  herself  to 
Buddha,  and  to  become  a  Bhikshuni.  Accordingly  she 
proceeded  to  the  place  where  he  was,  and,  having  half 
ascended  the  mountain,  she  halted  a  while  at  a  fountain  to 
drink.  Whilst  lifting  the  water  to  her  mouth,  she  saw 
her  face  reflected  in  the  fountain,  and  she  could  not  but 
observe  her  own  incomparable  beauty,  the  delicacy  of  her 
complexion,  her  rosy  hair,  her  graceful  figure.  On  seeing 
herself  thus,  she  altered  her  mind  and  said  :  "Shall  one 
born  so  beautiful  as  I  am  go  out  of  the  world  and  become 
a  recluse  ? — no !  rather  let  me  have  my  fill  of  pleasure 
and  be  satisfied," — on  this  she  made  ready  to  turn  back 
and  go  home.  But  in  the  meantime  Buddha,  seeing  the 
circumstance,  and  knowing  that  Pundari  was  in  a  con- 
dition to  be  converted,  transformed  himself  at  once  into 
a  beautiful  woman,  infinitely  more  charming  than  Pundari. 
Meeting  as  they  went,  the  courtesan  was  amazed  at  the 
beauty  of  the  strange  woman,  and  asked  her  :  "  Whence 
come  you,  fair  one  !  And  where  dwell  your  kindred  ? 
and  why  do  you  travel  thus  alone,  without  attendants  ? " 
On  which  the  stranger  replied  :  "  I  am  returning  to  yonder 
city,  and  though  we  be  not  acquainted  let  us  join  company 
and  go  together."  On  this  they  went  on  their  way  till 


96  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

they  came  to  a  certain  fountain  on  the  road,  where  they 
sat  down.  At  length,  the  conversation  having  ceased,  the 
strange  beauty,  resting  herself  against  the  knees  of  Pundari, 
fell  asleep.  After  a  time  the  courtesan,  looking  down  at 
her  friend,  was  amazed  to  behold  her  form  entirely  changed  ; 
she  had  become  loathsome  as  a  corpse,  her  face  pallid,  her 
teeth  gone,  the  hair  fallen  from  her  head,  hateful  insects 
feeding  on  her  flesh.  Frightened  and  aghast  at  the  sight, 
Pundari  hastened  away  from  the  spot,  and  as  she  exclaimed, 
"  How  transient  is  human  beauty  !  "  she  hurried  back  again 
in  the  direction  of  Buddha's  dwelling-place,  and,  having 
arrived,  cast  herself  prostrate  at  his  feet,  and  related  to  him 
what  she  had  seen,  on  which  Buddha  addressed  her  thus  : 
"  There  are  four  things,  Pundari,  which  must  ever  cause 
sadness  and  disappointment.  That  one, however  beautiful, 
must  yet  become  old  ;  that  one,  however  firmly  established, 
must  die  ;  that  one,  bound  in  closest  ties  of  friendship  and 
affection,  must  yet  be  separated  from  those  one  loves  ; 
and  that  wealth,  heaped  up  in  ever  such  profusion,  must 
yet  be  scattered  and  lost." 

And  then  the  World- Honoured  added  these 
lines  and  said  : 

"  Old  age  brings  with  it  loss  of  all  bodily 
attraction  ;  through  decay  and  disease  a  man 
perishes  ;  his  body  bent,  and  his  flesh  withered, 
this  is  the  end  of  life.  What  use  is  this  body 
when  it  lies  rotting  beside  the  flowings  of  the 
Ganges  ?  It  is  but  the  prison-house  of  disease, 
and  of  the  pains  of  old  age  and  death.  To 
delight  in  pleasure,  and  to  be  greedy  of  self- 
indulgence,  is  but  to  increase  the  load  of  sin, 
forgetting  the  great  change  that  must  come, 
and  the  inconstancy  of  human  life." 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         97 

The  courtesan  having  heard  these  words  was 
able  to  see  that  life  is  but  as  the  flower,  that 
there  is  nothing  permanent  but  Nirvana,  and 
so  she  requested  permission  to  become  a  Bhik- 
shuni,  which  was  readily  granted.1 

"  How,"  said  his  disciple,  Ananda,  to  him  on 
one  occasion,  "  how  should  we  conduct  our- 
selves towards  women  ?" — "Turn  away  your 
head  !  "— "  But  if  we  should  see  her  ?  "— "  Not 
speak  to  her  !  " — •"  But  if  we  should  happen  to 
speak  to  her  ?  " — "  Then  you  must  be  very 
watchful,  Ananda  !  " 

"  Women  are  the  worst  enemies  of  wise 
men  ;  guard  yourselves  from  them  as  from  a 
poisonous  snake/'  was  another  piece  of  advice 
to  his  followers. 

"  Lewdness,"  he  once  declared,  "  clings  to 
women  like  filth  !  " — an  exaggerated  statement 
of  the  unconsciously  sexual  or  child-bearing 
nature  of  all  real  women,  and  a  characteristic 
which  has  been  observed  by  every  keen  critic  of 
human  nature,  from  Juvenal  to  Weininger.  It 
is  likewise  a  characteristic,  however,  which  all 
men  of  thought  seem  to  detest  when  in  the  com- 
pany'of  such  women,  because  it  interferes  with 
their  own  child-bearing — their  books. 

1  Texts  from  the  Buddhist  Canon  (Dhamtnafadha)  Beal's  translation, 
pp.  42-3. 


CHAPTER  VI 

The  early  Arabs — Their  religious  system — Birth  of 
Mohammed  —  His  early  studies  —  the  Hanifs — 
Mohammed's  alleged  "  epilepsy  " — His  lonely  medita- 
tions— His  first  revelation — Early  converts — Quarrels 
with  the  Meccans — Flight  to  Medina — Progress  of 
Islamism — Capture  of  Medina — Death  of  the  Prophet 
— His  successors. 

ABOUT  500  A.D.  the  Persians  secured  a  firm 
footing  in  Arabia  through  helping  the  native 
princes  to  expel  the  Christians  from  the 
Northern  frontier.  Their  influence,  however, 
did  not  extend  to  the  Western  or  Southern 
part  of  the  Peninsula,  and  in  the  Nejd,  the 
Hijaz  and  the  Yemen,  the  wandering  bands  of 
Arabian  hunters  and  even  the  village  com- 
munities were  left  comparatively  unmolested. 
The  religious  state  of  these  tribes  presents  a 
strong  analogy  to  that  of  the  Jews  before  the 
appearance  of  Moses.  It  may  best  be  described 
as  Pagan  pantheism,  though,  out  of  the 
numerous  gods,  Allah  was  after  a  time  recog- 
nised as  the  supreme  power,  the  remaining 
gods  being  looked  upon  as  his  children.  It 
would  appear  that  the  subordinate  deities  were 

the  special  protectors  of  individual  tribes  and 

98 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         99 

families,  in  the  same  manner  as  the  Italians 
even  at  the  present  day  carry  about  the  images 
of  certain  saints  :  but  all  oaths  were  sworn  in 
the  name  of  Allah.  It  by  no  means  follows, 
however,  that  Allah  was  specially  feared  or  rever- 
enced, for  in  worship  or  sacrifice  the  last  place 
was  allotted  to  him,  in  order  that  the  other 
deities,  representing  as  they  did  certain  specific 
interests,  might  be  worshipped  first. 

The  Arab  of  ancient  times,  however, — and 
the  trait  is  seen  to  a  great  extent  even  in  his 
modern  descendant  —  was  an  extreme  indi- 
vidualist. Most  of  his  time  was  spent  in  hunt- 
ing, varied  by  wine,  gambling,  and  love, 
together  with  an  occasional  feud.  These  hardy 
fighters  endeavoured  to  perform  noble  deeds, 
and  to  sustain  and  raise  the  prestige  of  their 
family  or  tribe  ;  but  in  doing  so  they  trusted 
to  themselves  alone.  They  appeal  to  no  super- 
natural power,  and  in  times  of  danger  they 
rely  upon  their  swords. 

From  the  time  they  come  within  the  ken  of 
history  the  Arabs  seem  to  have  been  influenced 
by  the  deities  mentioned  above,  but  about  the 
fifth  or  sixth  century  of  our  era  the  want  of  a 
new  religion  began  to  be  felt.  As  they  were 
partly  allied  to  the  Jews  from  an  ethnological 
standpoint,  it  may  have  been  thought  that  the 


ioo  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

Arabs  would  have  come  under  the  sway  of  the 
Old  Testament.  But  it  must  be  recollected 
that  at  this  period  Judaism  was  represented 
merely  by  commentators,  grammarians  and 
subtle  casuists.  The  fighting  spirit  of  Judaism 
was  applied  intellectually  and  not  physically  in 
an  endeavour  to  maintain  the  race,  which  was 
now  without  a  country  and  scattered  among 
many  hostile  populations.  The  once  agri- 
cultural Hebrews  had  become  merchants  and 
money-lenders,  and  were  despised  by  a  righting 
people  like  the  Arabs  accordingly.  A  faith 
was  wanting  which  should  unite  the  scattered 
Arab  tribes  and  mould  them  into  a  great  nation 
by  means  of  a  firm  spiritual  discipline. 

Among  the  numerous  Arab  tribes  one  in 
particular  early  came  into  prominence.  This 
was  the  Beni-Kinana,  and  one  branch  of  it,  the 
Koraish,  who  had  settled  in  and  about  Mecca, 
were  noted  for  their  long  trading  journeys, 
and,  for  that  time,  wide  knowledge  of  the 
world.  Their  culture,  we  learn,  was  naturally 
superior  to  that  of  the  nomadic  tribes,  and 
even  to  that  of  the  more  agricultural  inhabitants 
of  Medina,  a  city  some  240  miles  off.  Among 
the  most  powerful  and  influential  families  of 
Mecca  were  Beni-Omayya,  the  Beni-Makhsum 
and  the  Beni-Hashim,  and  from  a  branch  of  the 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST 

latter,  the  Abdulmottalib,  was  born  Mohammed 
ben  Abdullah,  on  29th  August  570.  The 
Prophet's  father  died  before  his  son's  birth,  and 
his  mother,  Anina,  died  when  he  was  still  com- 
paratively young.  Mohammed's  grandfather, 
Abdul mottalib,  then  took  charge  of  the  boy  for 
a  time,  and  he  was  afterwards  taken  under  the 
protection  of  his  uncle,  Abu  Talib  ben  Abdul- 
mottalib.  The  family  had  been  wealthy  at  one 
time,  but  a  series  of  misfortunes  had  reduced 
their  worldly  resources,  though  their  influence 
was  still  very  powerful. 

When  twenty-four  years  of  age  Mohammed 
entered  the  business  house  of  a  rich  widow 
named  Khadija,  and  in  her  behalf  he  made 
several  trading  journeys  in  Palestine  and  Syria, 
thus  gaining  some  knowledge  of  the  world  and 
coming  into  contact  with  foreign  learning, 
customs,  and  religions.  Although  the  widow 
was  several  years  his  senior,  he  married  her, 
after  having  been  in  her  employment  for  some 
time,  and  several  children  resulted  from  the 
union.  Mohammed's  two  sons  died  in  child- 
hood, and  of  his  daughters  one  in  particular, 
Fatima,  afterwards  became  well  known  in  con- 
nection with  the  promulgation  of  her  father's 
faith. 

At   the    age    or    thirty-four    or    thirty-five 


102  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

Mohammed  began  to  be  influenced  by  the  re- 
ligious movement  already  referred  to.  Among 
those  who  felt  the  narrowness  of  the  beliefs 
generally  prevailing  and  the  need  for  something 
better,  were  Omayya  ben  abi'1-Salt,  Zaid  ben 
Amur,  Abu  Kais  and  Abu  Amir,  the  first  two 
belonging  to  Mecca  and  the  latter  two  to 
Medina.  These  men  were  known  as  Hanifs, 
which  is  generally  supposed  to  mean  penitents, 
though  hardly  in  the  Christian  sense  of  the 
word.  They  devoted  their  time  chiefly  to  re- 
flection and  meditation  upon  the  actual  religion 
of  the  Arabs  ;  but  they  were  not  possessed  of  the 
genius  of  the  man  who  was  soon  to  join  them. 
Mohammed  in  early  life  was  subject  to  fits 
resembling  epilepsy,  though  the  exact  nature  of 
his  disease  has  long  been  a  matter  of  dispute. 
As  it  is  also  fairly  evident  that  he  possessed 
the  faculty  of  seeing  visions,  we  shall  not  be 
straining  a  point  in  deciding  that  his  supposed 
epilepsy  or  ecstasy  was  simply  the  result  of 
his  strong  religious  fervour,  which  was  merely 
waiting  to  be  drawn  forth  and  developed  to 
become  a  potent  instrument.  The  future 
prophet  proceeded  to  study  the  Hanifs  and 
their  beliefs,  but  found  that  they  were  merely 
ascetics,  acknowledging  Allah  and  resigning 
themselves  to  his  will,  being  at  the  same  time 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       103 

much  more  interested  in  saving  their  own 
individual  souls  than  in  planning  a  widespread 
movement  for  the  benefit  of  the  Arabian  race 
as  a  whole.  Following  the  example  of  these 
ascetics,  however,  Mohammed  withdrew  for 
long  periods  to  a  remote  part  of  the  mountains, 
in  order  that  he  himself  might  meditate. 
Undoubtedly  his  thoughts  were  influenced  by 
the  teachings  of  the  Hanifs,  though  who  actu- 
ally influenced  the  Hanifs  is  a  matter  of  some 
doubt.  Tradition  and  written  evidence  tend 
to  show  that  they  had  come  into  contact  with 
both  Jews  and  Christians,  and  in  particular 
with  members  of  the  Essene  sect.  In  spite 
of  all  this,  however,  an  impartial  enquirer  will 
admit  that,  no  matter  what  superficial  analogy 
there  may  seem  to  be  between  Mohammedan- 
ism and  Judaism,  or  even  Mohammedanism 
and  Christianity,  the  main  features  of  the  faith 
were  entirely  original.  No  doubt,  however, 
many  Islamic  sayings  may  be  found  in  the  Old 
Testament,  and  even  some  in  the  New,  as  we 
shall  see  when  we  come  to  consider  the  Koran. 
A  well-known  tradition  says  that  one  night, 
as  Mohammed  was  meditating  on  Mount  Hira, 
the  Angel  Gabriel  appeared  to  him  as  he  lay 
sleeping,  and,  although  the  prophet  could  not 
read,  compelled  him  to  study  a  sentence  written 


104  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

on  a  silken  scroll.  This  was  the  first  appear- 
ance on  earth  of  a  text  from  a  heavenly 
volume,  out  of  which  other  prophets,  such  as 
Moses  and  Jesus,  had,  through  inspiration, 
derived  their  knowledge.  The  words  are 
repeated  in  Sura1  xcvi.  of  the  Koran  :  "  Read  ! 
in  the  name  of  thy  Lord  who  created  man 
from  a  drop  of  blood  !  For  thy  Lord  is  the 
Most  High,  who  hath  taught  by  the  pen,  hath 
taught  to  man  what  he  knew  not.  Know 
truly  man  walketh  in  delusion  when  he  deems 
that  he  sufficeth  for  himself ;  to  thy  Lord  they 
must  all  return."  Weil  has  pointed  out  that 
this  vision  experienced  by  Mohammed  (Sura 
xcvii.  i,  2)  was  based  upon  the  traditional 
conception  of  revelation  and  prophecy  which 
he  had  learnt  to  expect  as  the  result  of  his 
experiences  with  the  Hanifs,  and  compares 
Sura  Ixxxvii.  6  :  <(  We  will  cause  thee  so  to  read 
that  thou  mayest  forget  nothing  save  what  God 
will."  Isaiah's  lips  are,  it  may  be  remembered, 
"touched"  to  purge  them  of  sin  (Is.  vi.  7)  ; 
Jeremiah's  are  "  touched  "  by  the  Lord  to  put 
the  words  in  his  mouth  (Jer.  i.  9)  ;  Ezekiel 

1  Sura.  As  Rodwell  points  out,  the  word  "  Sura  "  occurs  nine 
times  in  the  Koran,  but  it  is  not  easy  to  determine  whether  it  means  a 
whole  chapter  or  only  part  of  a  chapter,  or  whether  it  is  used  in  the 
sense  of  "revelation."  It  is  understood  by  the  Mohammedan  commen- 
tators to  have  a  primary  reference  to  the  succession  of  subjects  or  parts. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST      105 

receives  the  revelation  as  the  roll  of  a  book 
which  he  has  to  swallow  (Ezek.  iii.  2).  The 
central  ideas  of  Mohammedanism  are  contained 
in  the  early  Suras,  in  which  category  we  may 
include  those  just  referred  to.  "  Man  lives  on 
content  with  himself;  but  he  must  one  day 
return  to  his  Creator  and  Lord  and  account  to 
him  for  his  actions  on  earth/'  This  is  an  old 
Arabic  principle ;  but  Mohammed  made  it 
supreme  by  having  it  written  down  from  the 
revelation  which  he  received  direct  from  on 

high- 
Having  collected  his  thoughts  after  the 
angel  had  disappeared,  Mohammed  descended 
the  mountain  and  communicated  the  news 
to  his  wife,  Khadija.  Apparently  he  was 
perturbed  and  dazed,  hardly  able  to  believe 
what  he  had  read  and  heard.  Khadija 
consoled  him  and  endeavoured  to  dispel  his 
doubts.  But  the  Prophet  was  still  anxious. 
Day  after  day  he  would  ascend  Mount  Hira 
and  often  thought  of  casting  himself  from  the 
summit.  After  two  or  three  years  of  mental 
anguish  he  suddenly  rushed  into  his  wife's 
presence,  crying  :  "  Wrap  me  up  !  Wrap  me 
up !  "  This  time,  it  is  said,  he  fell  into  a  swoon, 
and  when  any  further  revelations  were  vouch- 
safed him,  he  seems  to  have  had  an  attack 


io6  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

resembling  epilepsy.  On  his  recovery  he 
dictated  Sura  Ixxiv.  beginning,  "  Oh !  thou 
enveloped  one ! "  From  this  time  onward 
revelation  regularly  followed  revelation,  and 
Mohammed  became  convinced  of  his  Divine 
mission,  although  before  he  had  experienced 
many  doubts  (Sura  xciii.)  : 

By  the  noon-day  BRIGHTNESS, 

And  by  the  night  when  it  darkeneth  ! 

Thy  Lord  hath   not   forsaken  thee,  neither   hath 

he  been  displeased. 
And   surely  the  Future  shall    be   better  for   thee 

than  the  Past, 
And  in  the  end  shall  thy  Lord  be  bounteous  to 

thee  and  thou  be  satisfied. 
Did  he  not  find  thee  an  orphan  and  gave  thee  a 

home  ? 

And  found  thee  erring  and  guided  thee, 
And  found  thee  needy  and  enriched  thee. 
As  to  the  orphan  therefore  wrong  him  not ; 
And  as  to  him  that  asketh  of  thee,  chide  him  not 

away ; 
And   as    for   the  favours   of  thy  Lord  tell    them 

abroad. 

The  process  of  conversion  then  began.  The 
first  to  yield  to  the  solicitations  of  the  Prophet 
was  his  wife  Khadija,  then  his  freedman,  Zaid 
ben  Haritha,  his  cousin  Ali,  and  his  friend 
Abu  Bekr  or  Abubekr  ben  Abi  Kohafa.  Owing 
to  the  influence  of  the  latter,  several  influential 
men  were  induced  to  embrace  the  doctrines 
of  Mohammed,  among  them  being  Othman 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       107 

ben  Affan,  Zobair  ben  al-Awwam,  Abdul 
Rahman  ben  Auf,  and  Sad  ben  Abi  Wakkas, 
whose  names  occur  frequently  in  the  history 
of  the  great  religious  movement.  Mohammed 
himself  at  this  period  did  not  think  he  was 
founding  a  new  religion,  but  that  he  was 
merely  reminding  his  brethren  of  old  truths 
and  duties  which  had  long  been  forgotten. 
His  conviction  that  he  was  a  second  Moses 
and  had  a  Divine  mission  to  promulgate 
the  commands  of  the  Almighty  on  earth,  urged 
him  to  make  a  public  profession  of  his  faith 
and  to  secure  converts,  and  in  order  that 
suitable  meetings  might  be  held,  one  of  his 
disciples  offered  him  a  house  in  the  centre 
of  the  town  of  Mecca.  Here  prayers  were 
made  and  the  deity  worshipped  in  accordance 
with  the  teachings  of  the  Prophet  ;  but  many 
of  the  influential  Arabs  held  aloof  from  the 
proceedings  on  the  ground  that,  although 
Mohammed  himself  had  come  from  the  upper 
classes  of  Arabian  society,  most  of  his  followers 
came  from  the  lower  elements.  It  seems  to 
have  been  chiefly  on  this  account  that  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  Prophet  did  not  appeal  to 
them  ;  and  Mohammed  appears  to  have  felt 
considerable  irritation  at  their  attitude.  In 
Sura  Ixxx.,  for  example,  we  find  him  rebuked 


io8  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

by  God  for  having  thrust  aside  a  beggar  who 
addressed  him  as  he  was  engaged  in  trying 
to  convert  a  man  of  a  higher  order  of 
society  : 

HE  FROWNED,  and  he  turned  his  back, 

Because  the  blind  man  came  to  him  ! 

But  what  assured  thee  that  he  would  not  be 
cleansed  by  the  Faith, 

Or  be  warned,  and  the  warning  profit  him  ? 

As  to  him  who  is  wealthy — 

To  him  thou  wast  all  attention  : 

Yet  is  it  not  thy  concern  if  he  be  not  cleansed : 

But  as  to  him  who  cometh  to  thee  in  earnest, 

And  full  of  fears — 

Him  dost  thou  neglect. 

Nay  !  but  it  (the  Koran)  is  a  warning  ; 

(And  whoso  is  willing  beareth  it  in  mind) 

Written  on  honoured  pages, 

Exalted,  purified, 

By  the  hands  of  Scribes,  honoured,  righteous. 

Cursed  be  man  !  What  hath  made  him  un- 
believing ? 

Of  what  thing  did  God  create  him  ? 

Out  of  moist  germs. 

He  created  him  and  fashioned  him, 

Then  made  him  an  easy  passage  from  the  womb, 

Then  causeth  him  to  die  and  burieth  him  ; 

Then,  when  he  pleaseth,  will  raise  him  again 
to  life. 

Ay  !  but  man  hath  not  yet  fulfilled  the  bidding 
of  his  Lord. 

Let  man  look  at  his  food : 

It  was  We  who  rained  down  the  copious  rains, 

Then  cleft  the  earth  with  clefts, 

And  caused  the  upgrowth  of  the  grain, 

And  grapes  and  healing  herbs, 

And  the  olive  and  the  palm, 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       109 

And  enclosed  gardens  thick  with  trees, 

And  fruits  and  herbage, 

For  the  service  of  yourselves  and  of  your  cattle. 

But  when  the  stunning  trumpet-blast  shall  arrive, 

On  that  day  shall  a  man  fly  from  his  brother, 

And  his  mother  and  his  father, 

And  his  wife  and  his  children  ; 

For   every   man   of  them    on    that   day   his   own 

concern  shall  be  enough. 
There  shall  be  faces  on  that  day  radiant, 
Laughing  and  joyous : 

And  faces  on  that  day  with  dust  upon  them : 
Blackness  shall  cover  them  ! 
These  are  the  Infidels,  the  Impure. 

As  has  already  been  stated,  the  Arabs  were 
polytheists  and  worshipped  several  minor  gods 
besides  Allah.  Mohammed's  teaching,  on  the 
contrary,  was,  like  that  of  Moses  in  the  case 
of  the  Hebrews,  entirely  monotheistic  :  and 
as  he  found  himself  and  his  divine  mission 
more  and  more  neglected,  he  accentuated  his 
diatribes  against  the  polytheism  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen.  Furthermore,  he  threatened  the 
Meccans  with  punishment  on  account  of  their 
neglecting  God's  chosen  messenger.  Attack 
after  attack  followed  upon  various  Meccan 
customs  and  superstitions,  so  that  finally  the 
irritated  inhabitants  appealed  to  Mohammed's 
uncle  to  withdraw  his  protection,  or  else  to 
desire  his  nephew  to  cease  from  what  they 
naturally  regarded  as  unjustified  slanders.  This 


no  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

the  uncle  refused  at  first  to  do,  but  another 
strong  deputation  of  the  townspeople  induced 
him  to  send  for  his  nephew  and  explain  matters. 
The  Prophet,  however,  was  unmoved.  "  Though 
they  give  me  the  sun  in  my  right  hand  and  the 
moon  in  my  left  to  entice  me  away  from  my 
undertaking,  yet  will  I  not  pause  till  the  Lord 
carry  my  cause  to  victory,  or  till  I  die  for  it," 
was  his  reply,  saying  which  he  wept  and  turned 
away.  His  uncle,  however,  went  after  him 
and  solemnly  promised  never  to  abandon  him. 

While  Mohammed  himself  suffered  no 
serious  injury  (largely  due,  it  must  be  ad- 
mitted, to  the  protection  of  his  uncle),  his 
followers,  especially  those  in  the  lower  ranks  of 
society,  were  so  much  harassed  by  insults  and 
cruel  treatment  that  many  of  them  fled  to 
Abyssinia,  for  this  latter  country  had  merely 
become  Christian  by  accident,  and  a  bond, 
which  might  almost  have  been  called  racial, 
united  its  inhabitants  with  the  Arabian 
refugees. 

When  the  Prophet  heard  of  this,  he  took 
instant  steps  to  effect  a  reconciliation.  One  of 
his  best-known  attempts  was  that  of  meeting 
the  heads  of  the  Koraish  tribe  and  beginning 
to  recite  to  them  Sura  liii.  When  he  came 
to  one  passage — "What  think  ye  of  al-Lab?  " 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       in 

the  adverse  influence  caused  him  to  interpret 
the  passage  favourably  to  the  old  Arabian 
deities.  Pleased  at  this,  the  tribesmen  ex- 
pressed their  willingness  to  recognise  the  teach- 
ing of  Mohammed  ;  but  in  the  evening  of  the 
same  day  the  angel  Gabriel  appeared  to  the 
prophet  and  reproached  him  with  what  he  had 
done.  When  Mohammed  proceeded  to  circu- 
late the  revised  version  of  the  text,  the  Koraish 
chiefs  angrily  repudiated  him,  and  the  old 
state  of  things  was  once  more  in  evidence. 
Several  of  the  Arabian  emigrants  to  Abyssinia, 
who  had  returned  to  Mecca  in  the  hope  of 
finding  some  improvement  in  the  condition  of 
the  Mohammedans  there,  were  disappointed, 
and  soon  afterwards  a  second  emigration  took 
place. 

Throughout  all  this,  however,  the  prophet 
never  lost  faith  in  himself ;  and  his  confidence 
in  his  mission  was  to  some  extent  rewarded  by 
two  important  conversions  ;  one  of  his  uncle 
and  the  other  of  Omar  ben  al-Khattab,  a  young 
man  of  good  family.  About  this  time,  too, 
the  Mohammedans  irritated  their  fellow- 
townsmen  still  more  by  praying  in  public  and 
making  no  secret  of  their  faith,  as  they  had 
hitherto  been  compelled  to  do.  The  continued 
sneers  and  gibes  of  the  Meccans  drew  from  the 


H2  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

seer  further  prophecies  of  the  downfall  of  the 
city ;  but  the  longer  this  "  downfall "  was 
postponed,  the  more  did  the  people  mock 
him. 

From  the  commentators  on  the  Koran, 
whose  writings  have  been  so  carefully  examined 
by  Weil,  we  can  judge  that  Mohammed  was 
at  this  period  in  close  touch  with  the  Jews  ; 
and  this  may  well  have  been  one  reason  why 
his  countrymen  did  not  attach  any  importance 
to  his  mission  ;  for  at  times  they  taunted  him 
with  the  human  sources  of  the  revelations 
which  he  professed,  and,  we  may  be  sure, 
sincerely  believed,  to  have  received  through 
inspiration. 

But  the  struggle  between  Mohammed  and 
the  Meccans  now  broke  out  into  open  warfare. 
The  Prophet's  followers  were  practically  ex- 
communicated ;  they  could  neither  buy  nor 
sell,  except  among  themselves,  and  this  drastic 
treatment  soon  had  its  effect.  Mohammed's 
more  lukewarm  converts  fell  off  by  degrees, 
and  it  would  appear  that  he  had  some  difficulty 
in  retaining  even  his  more  attached  supporters. 
To  add  to  his  troubles  at  this  time,  his  wife, 
Khadija,  fell  ill  and  died.  He  therefore  re- 
solved to  abandon  Mecca,  for  a  time  at  least, 
and  to  carry  his  propaganda  in  another  direction. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       113 

His  first  visit  was  to  the  neighbouring  tribe 
inhabiting  the  Taif  country,  but  he  had  scarcely 
begun  to  explain  his  doctrines  before  he  was 
attacked  by  a  mob,  who  drove  him  out  of  the 
city  of  Taif  to  the  accompaniment  of  showers 
of  stones,  and  he  was  glad  to  take  refuge  in  a 
vineyard  belonging  to  two  friendly  Meccans. 
Fearing  the  reception  which  might  await  him 
in  Mecca,  Mohammed  did  not  venture  near 
his  native  city  for  two  months  more,  and  even 
then  he  would  not  enter  the  precincts  of  the 
town  without  having  first  assured  himself  that 
he  would  be  under  the  protection  of  a  wealthy 
and  influential  citizen,  Mot'im  ben  Adi. 
Shortly  after  having  once  more  taken  up  his 
quarters  at  Mecca,  he  married  a  second  time, 
his  new  wife  being  Sanda  bint  Zama,  the  widow 
of  one  of  the  emigrants  who  had  returned  from 
Abyssinia. 

On  the  numerous  occasions  when  fairs  were 
held  in  Mecca,  Mohammed  made  a  point  of 
going  among  the  visitors  and  preaching  to 
them.  As  a  rule  he  did  not  meet  with  much 
success  ;  but  in  the  year  619  of  our  era  he  fell 
in  with  a  party  of  traders  from  Medina,  who 
seemed  not  only  disposed  to  listen  to  the  new 
teaching,  but  quick  to  grasp  its  essential 
doctrines.  This  meeting,  which  was  purely 


ii4  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

accidental,  led  to  Mohammed's  eventual 
success.  He  enquired  from  the  visitors 
whether  they  thought  their  fellow-townsmen 
would  be  equally  ready  to  hear  the  word  of 
Allah,  and  they  promised  to  tell  him  when 
they  returned  the  following  year.  Accordingly, 
at  a  feast  which  was  celebrated  early  in  620, 
twelve  of  the  leading  citizens  of  Medina  met 
the  prophet  at  Akaba,  and,  after  having  heard 
his  exposition  of  his  revelations,  they  solemnly 
promised  to  observe  no  god  but  Allah,  and  to 
carry  out  the  other  commandments  laid  down. 
This  meeting  was  ever  afterwards  known  as 
ths  First  Homage  on  the  Akaba  ;  and  it 
resulted  in  the  twelve  citizens  returning  to 
Medina  as  propagandists  of  Mohammedanism. 
They  were  accompanied  by  one  of  the  prophet's 
Meccan  followers,  whose  duty  it  was  to  instruct 
the  inhabitants  of  Medina  how  to  read  the 
Koran,  and  also  to  help  to  teach  and  explain 
the  doctrines  in  the  book. 

According  to  an  agreement  made,  the 
pilgrims  returned  in  the  following  year  (621), 
and  reported  good  progress,  some  seventy  men 
and  women,  who  came  with  them,  having  been 
converted  to  Islamism.  This  was  known  as 
the  Second  Homage  on  the  Akaba,  and  at  this 
interview  it  was  definitely  settled  that,  in  view 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       115 

of  Mohammed's  ill-success  in  Mecca,  and  the 
probabilities  of  securing  a  much  larger  number 
of  converts  in  Medina,  he  should  go  to  the 
latter  city  and  take  up  his  residence  there, 
together  with  his  Meccan  disciples.  They 
swore  to  guard  the  Prophet,  and  he  in  his  turn 
promised  to  look  upon  himself  as  one  of  their 
community. 

Although  all  the  arrangements  in  connection 
with  this  emigration  were  kept  as  secret  as 
possible,  it  soon  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the 
Meccans  that  many  of  their  fellow-citizens 
were  taking  flight,  seduced  from  the  true  faith 
by  one  whom  they  continued  to  consider  as  a 
hypocritical  impostor.  Steps  were  at  once 
taken  to  prevent  the  departure  of  the  visitors 
from  Medina,  but  the  discovery  was  made  too 
late  for  this  purpose.  Failing  this,  the  Meccans 
turned  their  attention  to  the  Moslems  who 
wished  to  emigrate.  Some  of  them  were 
imprisoned  and  others  bullied  into  disavowing 
Mohammed's  teachings.  Neither  threats  nor 
imprisonment,  however,  had  any  effect  in  post- 
poning the  crisis,  and  in  April,  622,  the 
emigrants  started,  about  150  reaching  Medina 
within  two  months.  From  this  date,  so 
momentous  in  the  annals  of  the  new  faith, 
the  Mohammedan  calendar  was  reckoned,  and 


u6  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

April  622  was  recognised  as  the  first  month  of 
the  Year  of  the  Flight  (the  Hijra). 

To  the  last  the  Prophet  remained  behind, 
doubtless  hoping  against  hope  for  some  change 
in  the  attitude  exhibited  towards  him  of  the 
inhabitants  of  his  native  place.  Abubekr  and 
AH  remained  with  him  ;  but  when  they  heard 
that  a  plot  had  been  laid  for  assassinating 
Mohammed,  a  hurried  departure  was  taken. 
Ali  remained  in  Mecca  for  a  short  time  ;  but 
for  three  days  the  two  fugitives,  Mohammed 
and  Abubekr,  remained  hidden  in  a  cave  on 
Mount  Thaur.  At  times  they  could  hear  the 
muffled  thuds  of  the  horses'  feet  as  their 
pursuers  vainly  searched  for  them  overhead, 
and  Abubekr  expressed  his  fears  to  the  Prophet 
lest  they  should  be  captured.  "  We  are  only 
two  against  a  multitude/'  he  added.  "  But," 
answered  the  prophet  sternly,  (c  is  there  not 
a  Third  with  us  ?  n  And,  thus  reminded  that 
Allah  was  aiding  them,  the  fears  of  the 
Prophet's  companion  gave  place  to  joy.  This 
flight  is  referred  to  in  the  Koran  (Sura  ix.  40) : — 

If  ye  assist  not  your  Prophet  .  .  .  God  assisted  him 
formerly,  when  the  unbelievers  drove  him  forth,  in 
company  with  a  second  only  when  they  two  were  in  the 
cave  ;  when  the  Prophet  said  to  his  companion:  "Be  not 
distressed  ;  verily,  God  is  with  us."  And  God  sent  down 
his  tranquillity  upon  him,  and  strengthened  him  with 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       117 

hosts  ye  saw  not,  and  made  the  word  of  those  who  believed 
not  the  abased,  and  the  word  of  God  was  the  exalted  ;  for 
God  is  Mighty,  Wise. 

Having  returned  to  its  owners  certain 
property  entrusted  to  Mohammed  for  safe 
keeping,  Ali  likewise  started  for  Medina, 
where  he  arrived  unmolested.  His  two  friends 
had  eluded  pursuit  and  preceded  him  by  a  few 
days.  It  was  a  tradition  afterwards  that  the 
Prophet  was  born,  arrived  at  Medina,  and  died 
on  the  1 2th  day  of  the  month  of  Rabi ;  but 
although  his  death  did  actually  take  place  on 
this  day  (corresponding  to  8th  June  632),  it  is 
not  probable  that  his  birth  and  arrival  in 
Medina  also  fell  on  the  same  day  of  the  month. 

Well  might  the  Mohammedan  calendar 
date  from  the  Hijra ;  for  with  Mohammed's 
arrival  in  Medina  the  real  history  of  the  move- 
ment he  inaugurated  may  be  said  to  have 
begun.  From  his  new  headquarters  in  the 
village  of  Koba,  near  Medina,  the  prophet 
carried  his  cause  to  victory,  and  lived  to  see  a 
great  and  powerful  state  founded  upon  his 
religious  doctrines.  For  this  he  has  been 
blamed  by  Christian  historians,  who  see  in  his 
efforts  to  use  his  religion  for  the  founding  of 
a  commonwealth  a  "  want  of  spirituality,"  and 
several  other  heinous  offences.  The  modern 


n8  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

student,  however,  will  be  inclined  to  think 
differently.  Such  a  religion  was  obviously 
wanted  for  the  preservation  of  the  Arab  race, 
however  scattered  and  hostile  to  each  other  the 
various  tribes  might  be.  Far  from  exhibiting 
a  lack  of  perspicacity  and  low  spiritual  ideals, 
Mohammed  perceived  with  an  insight  which 
cannot  be  too  highly  praised  the  opportunities 
which  it  was  necessary  to  seize  in  order  to 
attain  his  object.  If  the  Arabs  could  only  be 
saved  by  the  founding  of  a  state  upon  his 
doctrines,  no  present-day  thinker  would 
seriously  deny  that  the  Prophet  was  right  in 
adapting  means  to  ends.  Once  the  facts  of 
the  case  were  properly  grasped  by  himself  and 
his  intimate  associates,  Islamism  spread  with 
astonishing  rapidity  throughout  the  land  ;  and 
in  a  relatively  short  time  the  Arab  soldiers  had 
proved  the  prowess  of  their  arms  to  the  entire 
satisfaction  of  all  those  who  had  the  misfortune 
to  come  into  contact  with  them,  from  the 
Persian  Gulf  to  the  Iberian  Peninsula. 

Two  circumstances  combined  to  render 
Mohammed's  task  fairly  easy  —  easy,  that  is, 
when  compared  with  the  difficulties  with  which 
he  had  previously  been  obliged  to  cope.  In 
the  first  place,  the  Arabs  in  and  around  Medina, 
although  merely  two  different  branches  of  the 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       119 

same  tribe,  were  almost  continuously  at  logger- 
heads with  each  other.  At  times  each  in  turn 
sought  the  aid  of  the  Jews,  who  had  occupied 
the  district  before  the  Arabs  succeeded  in 
partly  dislodging  them.  It  was  clear  that  this 
would  be  splendid  raw  material  if  brought 
under  the  control  of  a  great  individuality  who 
would  know  how  to  use  it  ;  and  Mohammed 
was  exactly  the  man  to  rule  the  tribes  with  a 
firm  hand.  In  the  second  place,  both  tribes 
were  in  the  habit  of  laying  their  grievances 
before  their  Kahins,  a  body  of  men  who  might 
be  described  as  half-priest,  half -sage  ;  but 
when  Mohammed,  with  his  magnetic  personality 
and  imposing  presence,  came  into  the  midst  of 
them,  it  was  unanimously  agreed  forthwith 
that  his  reputation  entitled  him  to  a  final 
decision  in  all  matters  which  were  formerly 
submitted  to  the  Kahins.  This  gave  him  the 
supreme  spiritual  power  over  the  Arabs  ;  but 
it  must  never  be  overlooked,  in  dealing  with 
the  religion  which  he  founded,  that  the  people 
he  was  now  ruling  over  were  not  likely  to 
be  deluded  by  a  mere  impostor,  which  some 
Christians  have  accused  him  of  being.  Again, 
his  judgments,  so  far  as  we  can  trace  the 
history  of  his  life  at  this  period,  appear  to  have 
been  invariably  sound,  and  the  veneration  felt 


120  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

for  him  as  a  prophet  would  not  have  protected 
him  to  any  great  extent  if  they  had  been  other- 
wise. In  short,  wherever  we  endeavour  to 
consider  his  life  in  an  impartial  spirit, 
Mohammed  must  inevitably  strike  us  as  a 
man  of  far  more  than  average  insight,  energy, 
tact,  and  command  over  his  fellows,  all  these 
qualities  being  tinctured  with  that  spirit  of 
ecstasy  and  reverence  which  animated  Moses, 
Buddha,  and  the  other  great  seers  of  antiquity. 
It  is  on  minute  points  like  these  that  Sir 
William  Muir's  bias  in  favour  of  Christianity 
leads  him  astray.  His  Life  of  Mohammed— 
a  work  which  exhibits  much  research  and 
industry — is  spoiled  from  the  outset  by  the 
defect  of  nearly  every  English  thinker,  viz., 
a  prejudice  in  favour  of  his  country  in 
philosophy  and  religion,  the  two  subjects  of 
which  English  writers  have  notoriously  always 
been  the  worst  possible  exponents. 

While  Mohammed's  decision  on  any  matter 
brought  before  him  for  judgment  was  taken 
as  final,  he  was  at  first  looked  upon  by  the 
Medinians  as  merely  exercising  a  privilege 
when  giving  such  pronouncements.  After  a 
time,  however,  the  Prophet  claimed  this  pro- 
cedure as  a  right ;  and  no  objection  seems  to 
have  been  made.  Indeed,  a  rebuke  may  be 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST        121 

noted  in  Sura  iv.  63,  of  the  Koran,  obviously 
levelled  at  a  few  Arabs  who  took  their  com- 
plaints before  the  Kahins  instead  of  bringing 
them  to  him  :  "  Hast  thou  not  taken  note  of 
those  who  professed  to  be  believers,  yet  wish 
to  carry  on  their  suit  before  the  false  gods  ?  " 
In  short,  Mohammed  was  not  long  in  Medina 
before  he  became  the  foremost  man  in  the 
community,  his  revelations  and  prophecies  not 
merely  giving  him  a  special  status  as  spiritual 
adviser,  but  the  exercise  of  his  practical 
common-sense  showing  him  to  be  the  wisest 
ruler  a  state  could  have  when  dealing  with 
affairs  of  everyday  life.  As  soon  as  he  had 
made  himself  the  indisputable  master  of  the 
bodies  and  souls  of  the  inhabitants  of  Medina, 
Mohammed  used  his  power  to  carry  out  a 
thorough  reform  of  the  legal  and  religious 
systems  prevailing.  The  law  (Sunna)  grew 
naturally  out  of  his  decisions,  as  the  Torah 
grew  out  of  the  decisions  of  Moses  ;  Exod.  xviii. 
may  be  compared  as  proof  of  the  analogy  : — 

And  it  came  to  pass  on  the  morrow,  that  Moses  sat  to 
judge  the  people  ;  and  the  people  stood  by  Moses  from 
the  morning  unto  the  evening. 

And  when  Moses*  father-in-law  saw  all  that  he  did  to 
the  people,  he  said,  What  is  this  thing  that  thou  doest  to 
the  people  ?  why  sittest  thou  thyself  alone,  and  all  the 
people  stand  by  thee  from  morning  unto  even  ? 


122  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

And  Moses  said  unto  his  father-in-law,  Because  the 
people  come  unto  me  to  enquire  of  God  : 

When  they  have  a  matter,  they  come  unto  me  ;  and  I 
judge  between  one  and  another,  and  I  do  make  them 
know  the  statutes  of  God,  and  his  laws.  (Verses  13-16.) 

Mohammed  devoted  himself  chiefly  to  the 
rights  of  property,  and  made  many  salutary 
laws  in  this  connection.  He  also  paid  some 
attention  to  the  position  of  married  women  ; 
and  retained  for  himself  the  right  of  permitting 
or  withholding  capital  punishment,  thus  putting 
an  end  at  one  stroke  to  the  blood  feuds  which 
had  been  the  curse  of  Arabia  for  centuries. 
That  all  these  various  measures  were  unhesitat- 
ingly accepted  by  the  community  in  general 
well  testifies  to  his  powers  as  an  administrator 
and  law-giver. 

When  Mohammed  had  settled  in  Medina 
for  a  short  time,  he  began  to  entertain  great 
expectations  from  the  Jews,  from  whom  he  had 
previously — sometimes  deliberately,  but  more 
often  without  knowing  it  —  adopted  many 
religious  practices  in  connection  with  the  less 
important  parts  of  his  system.  He  gradually 
came  to  see,  however,  that  his  hopes  were 
bound  to  be  disappointed  in  the  long  run. 
While  religion  had  the  effect  of  bringing  the 
Arabs  together  in  a  political  sense,  it  had  not 
this  effect  on  the  Jews,  and  their  mutual 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       123 

quarrels  and  recriminations  were  of  much 
assistance  to  the  Prophet  in  developing  and 
strengthening  his  own  position.  But  as  the 
Arabs  gradually  became  welded  together  into 
a  single  organic,  political  body,  they  found 
themselves  unable  to  tolerate  foreign  elements 
within  their  regions,  and  a  spirit  of  hostility 
against  the  Jews  was  not  long  in  making  itself 
felt. 

As  this  feeling  of  revolt  against  the  presence 
of  the  Jews  became  stronger  and  stronger,  the 
prophet  made  a  few  alterations  in  his  system 
to  correspond  to  it.  Hitherto  the  Arabs 
had  prayed  with  their  faces  turned  towards 
Jerusalem  ;  now  they  were  directed  to  face 
Mecca.  For  the  Jewish  fast  held  on  the  loth 
of  Tishri  there  was  substituted  the  month 
of  Ramadan.  While  the  Jews  recognised 
Mohammed's  authority  as  a  kind  of  omni- 
potent judge,  they  were  not  satisfied  with  the 
development  of  a  civil  kingdom  out  of  religion  ; 
so  in  Sura  ii.  we  find  a  long  diatribe  against 
them,  doubtless  brought  about  by  some  indis- 
creet protest  which  had  come  to  the  ears  of  the 
Prophet.  Other  minor  features  of  the  Moslem 
ritual,  which  had  hitherto  had  a  Jewish  tinge, 
were  also  changed.  The  alteration  in  the 
direction  of  prayer  (kibla),  when  Mohammedans 


124  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

were  directed  to  face  Mecca  instead  of  Jerusalem, 
was  one  of  the  most  important. 

As  the  result  of  these  various  changes  the 
basic  principle  of  Islam  (i.e.,  the  Unity  of  God) 
was  accentuated,  and  the  remaining  four  of 
the  five  Islam  precepts  were  gradually  evolved, 
viz.,  prayer  at  stated  times,  almsgiving  to  the 
poor,  the  fast  of  Ramadan,  the  observance  of 
the  festival  of  Mecca.  The  prayers,  each  of 
which  at  first  consisted  of  two  and  afterwards 
of  four  protestations,  were  to  be  said  five  times 
daily — at  sunrise,  noon,  afternoon,  sunset,  and 
late  in  the  evening.  No  matter  what  occupa- 
tion the  Moslem  might  be  engaged  upon, 
when  the  hour  came  round  for  prayer  he 
must  cease  it  and  fulfil  his  religious  duties. 
The  almsgiving  was  a  device  of  Mohammed's 
for  introducing  a  spirit  of  fellowship  among 
the  Moslems.  The  moneys  appear  to  have 
been  paid  to  Mohammed  himself  in  the  first 
instance,  and  distributed  by  him  among  the 
needy,  but  they  afterwards  became  a  sort  of 
tithe,  forming  the  foundation  of  the  Moslem 
fiscal  system. 

By  these  five  regulations  Mohammed  seems 
to  have  made  his  personal  influence  very  strong. 
La  ilah  ilia  'llah  (no  god  but  the  one  God) 
was  the  rule  of  life ;  but  upon  this  short 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       125 

summing  up  of  the  faith  followed  the  corollary : 
"  and  Mohammed  is  His  Prophet."  When 
the  Prophet  spoke  he  spoke  in  the  name  of 
the  Almighty  ;  when  he  gave  a  command,  the 
command  was  an  injunction  from  God  and 
must  be  obeyed.  Hence  the  terse  sentence 
in  one  of  the  commentaries  on  the  Koran  : 
"  Brother  would  have  slain  brother,  had 
Mohammed  willed  it."  Formerly  the  head 
of  the  family  had  ruled  undisputably  over 
the  family  ;  but  now  God,  in  the  person  of 
His  only  Prophet,  ruled  over  all ;  anarchy 
gave  place  to  order  ;  a  heterogeneous  confusion 
of  different  tribes  became  a  homogeneous  and 
compact  mass  of  warriors.  Every  Moslem 
was  the  brother  of  every  other  Moslem,  so 
far  at  all  events  as  related  to  his  protection 
from  injury  at  the  hands  of  a  non-Moslem. 
There  was  no  law  outside  of  Islam  ;  and  the 
followers  of  Mohammed  were  under  the 
watchful  care  of  Allah. 

It  is  worth  while  devoting  so  much  space 
to  an  account  of  Mohammed's  procedure  and 
success  in  Medina,  for  it  was  the  turning  of 
his  religion  into  a  political  and  warlike  state 
that  may  be  reckoned  almost  a  miracle,  and 
not  the  fact  that  this  state  within  a  state 
afterwards  developed  into  a  world-wide  empire. 


126  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

The  nominal  brotherhood  of  all  the  Moslems 
— which  some  writers  have  grotesquely  suggested 
would  have  led  to  Communism — was  reconciled 
in  practice  with  strict  obedience  to  the  leaders 
of  the  commonwealth,  and  respect  for  the 
higher  spirits  in  the  people  on  the  part  of 
the  lower.  The  almost  uncanny  ability  of 
the  Asiatic  to  recognise  a  man  of  a  superior 
order  of  mind  and  to  follow  him  unswervingly, 
has  already  been  referred  to  by  Mr  Meredith 
Townsend  ;  and,  though  the  Arabs  are  un- 
doubtedly slower  in  this  respect  than  the 
Hindoos,  it  is  evident  that  they  did  recognise 
Mohammed's  genius  in  a  comparatively  short 
time,  apart  altogether  from  his  position  as 
Allah's  only  Prophet.  While  the  trait 
mentioned  holds  good  in  regard  to  the  Asiatic 
even  at  the  present  day,  it  would  be  practically 
impossible  for  this  recognition  to  be  extended 
to  any  superior  mind  in  our  modern  Europe — 
the  sneers  at  Schopenhauer  and  Nietzsche  for 
example,  from  the  men  who  should  in  the 
ordinary  course  of  events  be  entitled  to  no 
opinions  at  all,  are  enough  to  assure  us  of 
this.  The  moral  and  artistic  chaos  into  which 
the  one-man,  one-opinion  spirit  of  democracy 
is  landing  us  makes  one  feel  a  large  measure 
of  sympathy  for  the  English  bishop  who  said 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       127 

about  a  century  ago  :  "  The  common  people 
have  nothing  to  do  with  the  laws  except  to 
obey  them." 

Having  thoroughly  organised  his  community, 
Mohammed  now  proceeded  to  utilise  his  forces. 
From  this  time  onward  the  history  of  Islam  is 
political  rather  than  religious,  for  it  refers 
principally  to  the  numerous  campaigns  (maghazi) 
waged  by  the  apostle  of  God  against  the  un- 
believers. When  the  Prophet's  reputation  had 
extended  beyond  Medina  to  the  neighbouring 
villages,  a  few  allied  tribes  became  converts 
and  made  common  cause  with  him.  Such 
tribes  were  the  Johaina,  Mozaina,  the  Ghifar, 
and  the  Aslam.  Thus  reinforced,  Mohammed 
determined  to  show  that  he  rather  than  Christ 
had  come  with  a  sword  and  not  with  peace. 
It  was  almost  inevitable  that  the  first  holy  war 
(jihad)  should  be  against  the  Meccans.  True, 
the  prophet  had  been  born  amongst  them  ; 
but  faith  was  stronger  than  blood. 

As  Medina  was  situated  on  a  mountain 
ridge  on  the  long  highway  from  the  Yemen 
to  Syria,  Mohammed  took  advantage  of  this 
position  to  plunder  the  Meccan  caravans. 
The  first  attempt,  which  proved  entirely 
successful,  was  made  in  the  autumn  of  623. 
Mohammed  sent  out  a  band  of  his  followers 


128  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

under  sealed  orders,  and  a  caravan  returning 
from  Taif  was  attacked  in  accordance  with 
the  instructions  of  the  Prophet.  Many 
Meccans  were  killed  in  the  struggle,  but  the 
men  who  were  sent  out  to  perform  this  work 
had  to  be  disavowed  by  the  Prophet  afterwards, 
as  an  attack  during  the  sacred  month  of  Rahab 
was  far  from  finding  favour  with  the  inhabitants 
of  Medina.  Another  expedition  soon  followed  in 
the  month  of  Ramadan,  623  (which  in  that  year 
would  correspond  to  December).  An  important 
caravan  was  expected  to  return  from  Syria.  Mo- 
hammedset  out  to  meet  it  to  thenorth  of  Medina, 
having  with  him  three  hundred  and  eight  men. 
The  leader  of  the  caravan,  Abu  Sofyan,  heard  of 
the  attack  which  had  been  planned  against  him, 
and  sent  a  special  messenger  to  the  Koraish  in 
Mecca  for  help.  In  response  to  this  appeal 
some  nine  hundred  men  were  soon  on  their 
way  to  Bedr,  near  where  Mohammed  was 
lying  in  wait.  The  caravan  took  a  circuitous 
route  and  arrived  safely  ;  but  the  Koraish 
advanced  to  defend  the  honour  of  their  city. 
When  they  came  in  sight  of  Bedr  Mohammed's 
party  mistook  ithem  for  the  caravan  for  which 
they  had  been  waiting,  and  a  short  period  of 
anxious  excitement  ensued  when  they  learned 
the  truth.  Confident  in  the  ability  of  their 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST        129 

leader,   however,   they  awaited    the    onslaught 
of  the  enemy. 

The  battle  took  place  on  Friday,  the  I7th  or 
Ramadan.  At  first  single  combats  were  fought, 
and  the  accounts  describing  them  resemble  not 
a  little  the  Homeric  stories  of  the  Trojan  War. 
Although  outnumbered  by  three  to  one,  the 
Mohammedans  had  the  advantage  in  two 
respects.  In  the  first  place  the  Meccans  saw 
no  particular  reason  for  shedding  the  blood  of 
their  fellow-countrymen,  and  in  the  second 
place  Mohammed's  followers  were  animated 
by  that  intense  religious  fervour  with  which 
Asiatics  always  fight  for  new  ideas,  but  which 
Europeans,  who  do  not  understand  new  ideas, 
call  fanaticism.  The  struggle  came  to  an  end 
late  in  the  day,  when  the  heads  of  many  well- 
known  Meccan  families  had  been  slain.  Two 
of  the  prisoners,  the  Prophet's  deadly  enemies 
when  he  was  in  Mecca,  were  put  to  death  in 
cold  blood  by  his  orders.  The  others  were 
permitted  to  depart  on  payment  of  a  heavy 
ransom,  though  Mohammed  afterwards  re- 
gretted this  clemency,  saying  that  they  all 
deserved  to  be  sent  to  hell. 

Two  important  results  to  the  benefit  of 
Islam  resulted  from  this.  Mohammed  was 
now  in  a  strong  enough  position  to  break 


130  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

down  the  influence  and  prestige  of  the  Jews 
in  Medina.  He  went  about  this  task  by 
calling  upon  the  Beni  Kainoka  to  accept  Islam  ; 
and  on  their  refusal  he  declared  war  against 
them.  A  few  short  skirmishes  settled  the 
matter,  and  the  Jews  were  able  to  escape  with 
merely  being  banished  from  Medina.  Again, 
the  Meccans  were  greatly  impressed  —  they 
could  not  be  otherwise  —  by  their  defeat. 
They  spent  about  a  year  in  planning  how  they 
could  best  avenge  themselves,  and  in  January 
625  they  pitched  their  camp  at  the  foot  of 
Mount  Ohod,  to  the  north-east  of  Medina. 
Here  another  battle  was  engaged  in,  and  after 
a  long  struggle  the  victory  went  in  favour 
of  the  Meccans.  Mohammed  himself  was 
wounded  in  the  face  and  lay  on  the  ground 
for  some  time  as  if  dead,  while  his  uncle  was 
killed  outright.  The  Meccans  were  too 
greatly  weakened  to  follow  up  their  victory, 
and  returned  home  again  as  soon  as  they  could 
collect  their  scanty  forces.  In  order  that  the 
Moslems  might  not  appear  to  be  daunted  by 
their  defeat,  Mohammed  led  a  party  of  his 
followers  after  them  the  next  day  and  cut 
down  a  few  stragglers. 

The  summer  of  the  same  year  witnessed  the 
expulsion  of  a  powerful  Jewish  family  from 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       131 

Medina,  the  Beni  Nadir,  their  land  being 
seized  by  Mohammed  for  his  own  personal  use. 
The  expelled  tribe,  angered  at  the  drastic  treat- 
ment which  had  been  meted  out  to  them,  suc- 
ceeded in  bringing  together  the  Bedouin  tribes 
of  Solaim  and  Ghatafan.  The  Beni  Nadir 
arranged  a  compact  between  these  tribes,  the 
ultimate  object  being  to  attack  and  exterminate 
Mohammed  and  his  followers.  By  March 
627  they  had  succeeded  so  well  that  an  army 
of  ten  thousand  men  was  ready  to  march  on 
Medina.  Through  his  numerous  spies,  how- 
ever, the  Prophet  learned  of  the  arrangements 
which  were  being  directed  against  him,  and  he 
was  not  long  in  making  preparations  for  a  siege. 
The  houses  of  Medina  sufficed  in  themselves  to 
form  a  wall,  except  to  the  north-western  part 
of  the  town,  where  there  was  an  open  space. 
Acting  on  the  advice  of  his  Persian  freedman, 
Salman,  Mohammed  gave  orders  for  a  fosse  to 
be  dug,  and  here  he  entrenched  his  army.  In 
spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  huge  force  opposed 
to  them,  the  ranks  of  the  Prophet's  followers 
could  not  be  broken,  and  the  besiegers  en- 
deavoured to  prevail  on  the  only  Jewish  family 
left  in  Medina,  the  Koraiza,  to  help  them  from 
the  inside  of  the  town.  In  response  to  the  appeal, 
the  Jews  made  a  half-hearted  attempt  at  insur- 


132  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

rection  ;  but  the  fear  of  Mohammed's  power, 
and  the  still  greater  fear  that  the  forces  opposed 
to  him  would  leave  them  in  the  lurch  at  the 
end  of  the  fighting,  nullified  their  efforts  from 
the  very  beginning.  Dissensions  between  the 
Ghatafan  and  the  other  tribes,  coupled  with 
the  fact  that  provisions  were  beginning  to  run 
short,  ended  in  the  withdrawal  of  the  attack- 
ing forces,  after  a  siege  lasting  just  two  weeks. 
They  had  scarcely  been  out  of  sight  for  more 
than  twenty-four  hours  when  Mohammed  called 
his  followers  together  for  the  purpose  of  at- 
tacking the  Jews — the  unlucky  Koraiza  family 
which  had  endeavoured  to  assist  his  assailants. 
They  were  penned  up  in  their  own  quarter  of 
the  city,  and  captured  after  a  siege  of  several 
days.  Offered  the  choice  of  Islam  or  death, 
they  preferred  the  latter,  and  were  duly  exe- 
cuted. The  clan  numbered  in  all  nearly  seven 
hundred  men,  apart  from  the  women  and 
children.  All  the  men  were  slain,  the  women 
and  children  being  sold  into  slavery.  A  more 
magnificent  martyrdom,  as  Weil  justly  remarks, 
has  seldom  been  known  in  history. 

Desirous  now  of  bringing  Mecca  under  his 
control,  Mohammed  in  March  628,  set  out  on 
one  of  the  feast-days  to  visit  his  native  place, 
taking  with  him  the  respectable  bodyguard  of 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       133 

fifteen  hundred  men.  He  halted  at  Hodaibiya, 
on  the  borders  of  the  town  :  but  the  Meccans 
refused  him  admission.  The  Prophet  scarcely 
felt  that  he  had  a  sufficient  number  of  men  with 
him  to  force  his  way,  and  some  alarm  was  caused 
among  his  small  army  by  a  report  that  the 
Meccans  intended  to  attack  him  suddenly  and 
slay  them  to  a  man.  This  gave  rise  to  an 
event  which  became  famous  in  the  early  history 
of  Islam;  the  "  Homage  under  the  Tree." 
Mohammed  made  his  followers  swear,  by  strik- 
ing hands,  that  they  would  support  him  through 
anything  that  might  happen  and  die  if  necessary 
for  his  sake.  The  solemnity  of  the  scene  and 
the  intense  devotion  shown  to  the  Prophet  by 
his  followers  were  factors  which  greatly  influ- 
enced such  of  the  Koraish  as  happened  to  be 
present,  and  it  was  thought  advisable  to  come 
to  terms.  It  was  agreed  that  the  Prophet 
should  not  enter  Mecca,  in  order  that  he 
might  not  have  it  to  say  that  he  actually  forced 
his  way  into  the  town  ;  but  that  on  the  follow- 
ing year  he  was  to  return  and  be  admitted  to 
the  precincts  of  Mecca  for  three  days.  After 
some  deliberation  this  proposal  was  accepted 
and  a  treaty  was  drawn  up  accordingly. 

Mohammed  now  led  an   expedition  against 
the  wealthy  Jews  of  Khaibar,  to  the  north  of 


134  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

Medina,  in  order  to  compensate  his  disciples 
for  their  set-back  at  Mecca.  Taken  by  sur- 
prise, and  being  without  capable  leaders,  no 
real  resistance  was  offered  to  the  forces  of  the 
Prophet,  and  Jewish  executions  were  once  more 
the  rule. 

The  treaty  which  had  been  drawn  up  between 
Mohammed  and  the  Meccans  lasted  for  nearly 
two  years,  and  in  this  time  Islam  began  to 
spread  with  astonishing  rapidity.  Many  of  the 
tribes  scattered  about  Medina  and  Mecca  were 
amazed  at  the  ease  with  which  the  Prophet's 
soldiers  had  routed  hostile  armies  three  or  four 
times  their  number,  and  at  their  steadfast  ad- 
herence to  Mohammed  himself.  That  faith 
was  worth  more  than  force  was  an  axiom  which 
the  Arab  tribes  now  began  to  observe,  and  as 
a  consequence  the  ranks  of  the  Moslems  were 
swollen  by  thousands  of  new  disciples  in  the 
course  of  a  year.  In  many  cases  these  new 
adherents  of  Allah  were  undoubtedly  attracted 
by  the  booty  which  so  often  fell  to  the  lot  of 
the  Moslem  warriors.  At  the  end  of  the  first 
twelve  months  Mohammed  took  advantage  of 
his  treaty  rights  and  visited  Mecca  with  two 
thousand  men,  and  he  was  successful  in  con- 
verting the  heads  of  three  very  important 
Meccan  families. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         135 

Everything  was  now  ready  for  the  Moslem 
invasion  of  Mecca,  but  an  excuse  was  wanting. 
Fortunately  this  was  soon  supplied.  An  un- 
important Koraish  tribe  attacked  a  tribe  which 
was  allied  with  the  Moslems,  and  though  little 
damage  was  done  on  either  side,  the  Prophet 
seized  the  opportunity  to  declare  war.  An 
army  of  one  hundred  thousand  men  was  soon 
mustered,  and  in  January  630  (or  the  month 
of  Ramadan  A.  H.  8)  the  campaign  began. 
Indeed,  so  secret  did  Mohammed  keep  his 
movements  until  the  last  moment  that  his 
troops  were  almost  at  the  gates  of  Mecca  before 
the  Koraish  knew  anything  of  the  matter  ;  the 
first  intimation  they  had  being  the  glow  of  ten 
thousand  camp  fires  a  little  to  the  west  of  the 
city.  Abu  Sofyan,  who,  although  one  of  the 
principal  Meccans,  was  secretly  in  the  pay  of 
the  Prophet,  was  sent  to  negotiate.  He  re- 
turned to  the  citizens  to  say  that  their  best 
course  was  immediate  surrender,  Mohammed 
having  promised  security  to  those  who  refrained 
from  interfering  with  him.  This  was  agreed 
to,  and  with  the  exception  of  one  unimportant 
struggle  the  Prophet  and  his  followers  were 
able  to  enter  Mecca  with  comparative  ease. 
In  order  not  to  alienate  the  sympathies  of  the 
more  important  Arab  tribes,  Mohammed  pro- 


136  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

hibited  his  men  from  pillaging  the  city,  and  he 
also  took  an  early  opportunity  of  confirming 
all  the  old-established  rights  and  privileges  of 
Mecca.  By  destroying  every  sanctuary  outside 
of  Mecca,  too,  he  made  his  native  city  an  im- 
portant centre  of  worship.  About  this  time 
also  he  remodelled  the  Moslem  Calendar  and 
made  certain  alterations  in  the  ceremonials 
connected  with  the  feasts. 

The  submission  of  the  Koraish  was  the 
signal  for  the  neighbouring  tribes  to  follow 
suit.  Only  one  important  tribe  held  aloof, 
the  Howazin,  and  a  short  campaign  soon  made 
them  willing  to  throw  in  their  lot  with  the 
others.  It  was  remarked  after  this  that 
Mohammed  did  all  in  his  power  to  soothe  the 
Koraish  chiefs.  He  left  them  with  the  property 
they  had  already  owned  before  he  took  posses- 
sion of  Mecca,  and,  in  addition,  gave  them 
a  considerable  share  in  the  booty  which  had 
been  captured  elsewhere  by  the  men  of  Medina. 
Indeed,  the  latter,  who  had  done  all  the  fight- 
ing and  helped  in  the  greatest  degree  to 
propagate  the  doctrines  of  Islam,  felt  slighted 
when  they  saw  the  Koraish  reaping  the  fruits 
of  the  victory.  The  Prophet,  however, 
assembled  them  together  and  made  a  touch- 
ing speech,  reminding  them  of  the  dangers 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST        137 

they  had  endured  in  the  past,  and  of  the  fact 
that  Allah  might  manifest  himself  in  ways  that 
would  seem  strange  to  them,  whereupon  "all 
the  Moslems  wept  till  their  beards  were  wet," 
and  said  with  one  voice  :  "  O  Apostle  of  God, 
we  are  satisfied  with  our  portions  !  " 

In  acting  as  he  had  done,  however, 
Mohammed  was  influenced  by  his  own  political 
principles,  and  in  this  he  was  wise,  however 
much  theologians  may  be  inclined  to  censure 
him.  He  saw  that  the  future  of  Islam  lay  with 
the  powerful  Arab  aristocracy,  such  as  were  to 
be  found  among  the  Koraish  chiefs,  hence  the 
importance  he  attached  to  their  friendship,  and 
the  steps  he  took  to  prepare  the  way  for  their 
sovereignty  over  the  other  tribes  after  his  death. 

The  conquest  of  Mecca  was  followed  by 
only  one  other  great  event  in  Mohammed's  life. 
On  hearing  a  rumour  that  the  Greek  emperor 
was  about  to  march  upon  him,  he  gathered 
together  the  largest  army  that  had  ever  been 
seen  in  Arabia,  including  twenty  thousand  foot 
soldiers  and  ten  thousand  horse.  He  led  this 
force  in  person  towards  the  Syrian  borders,  and 
the  expedition  resulted  in  the  complete  subjuga- 
tion of  all  the  Christian  and  semi-Christian 
tribes  in  the  north.  The  Prophet's  reputation 
was  at  its  zenith,  and  from  all  parts  deputations 


138  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

came  to  him  to  do  homage  in  the  name  of  the 
various  tribes,  to  such  an  extent  that  the  years 
8  and  9  of  the  Hijra  were  known  as  the  Years 
of  the  Deputations.  The  last  great  tribe  to 
yield  was  the  Beni  Amir,  but  it,  too,  was 
conquered,  and  in  630  the  Prophet,  now 
complete  master  of  all  Arabia,  made  his 
pilgrimage  to  Mecca  with  the  knowledge  that 
his  divine  mission  had  been  successfully 
accomplished.  He  had,  in  twenty  years,  as 
Meredith  Townsend  justly  says,  lived  a  life 
which  would  have  hardened  the  heart  and 
ulcerated  the  temper  of  almost  any  man — a  life 
such  as  that  which  in  seven  years  turned 
Frederick  the  Great  into  a  military  despot ; 
but  Mohammed's  serene  character  was  proof 
against  all  the  trials  and  temptations  to  which 
he  had  been  subjected,  and  in  his  last  address 
to  the  pilgrims  from  Mount  Arafat,  at  Mecca, 
he  was  able  to  proclaim  a  universal  brotherhood 
throughout  Arabia  and  to  exhort  his  disciples 
to  righteousness  and  piety. 

"  Ye  people !  hearken  to  my  speech  and 
comprehend  the  same.  Know  that  every 
Moslem  is  the  brother  of  every  other  Moslem. 
All  of  you  are  on  the  same  equality  "  (and 
as  he  pronounced  these  words,  he  raised  his 
arms  aloft  and  placed  the  forefinger  of  one 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       139 

hand  on  the  forefinger  of  the  other),  "  ye  are 
one  brotherhood." 

u  Know  ye  what  month  is  this  ? — What 
territory  is  this  ? — What  day  ?  "  To  each 
question  the  people  gave  the  appropriate 
answer,  viz.,  "  The  Sacred  Month— The  Sacred 
Territory  —  the  Great  Day  of  Pilgrimage." 
After  every  one  of  these  replies  Mohammed 
added  :  "  Even  thus  sacred  and  inviolable  hath 
God  made  the  Life  and  the  Property  of  each  of 
you  unto  the  other  until  ye  meet  your  Lord. 

"  Let  him  that  is  present  tell  it  unto  him 
that  is  absent.  Haply,  he  that  shall  be  told,  may 
remember  better  than  he  who  hath  heard  it." 

On  his  return  to  Medina  Mohammed 
occupied  himself  with  preparations  for  another 
expedition  to  Syria,  but  the  time  had  arrived 
when  he  was  soon  to  meet  Allah  face  to  face. 
He  was  seized  with  a  dreadful  fever,  and  was 
scarcely  able  to  drag  himself  to  the  mosque, 
where,  amidst  the  loud  lamentations  of  the 
assembled  congregation,  he  announced  his 
approaching  death.  This  exertion  by  no  means 
helped  him,  and  during  the  next  few  days  he 
gradually  sank.  His  wives  insisted  on  dosing 
him  with  physic,  and  that  he  maintained  his 
sense  of  humour  to  the  last  may  be  seen  in  the 
fact  that  he  punished  them  by  making  them 


140  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

take  it  also.     On  the  8th  of  June  862,  he  died 
peacefully,  praying  to  Allah  almost  to  the  last. 


Even  while  the  body  of  Mohammed  lay 
unburied,  quarrels  began  to  arise  among  his 
disciples  as  to  his  successor.  Finally,  however, 
Abu-Bekr,  who  was  the  father  of  Mohammed's 
favourite  wife,  Ayeshah,  received  the  homage 
of  the  principal  chiefs  at  Medina,  and  his 
election  was  confirmed  by  an  assembly  of  the 
Faithful  in  632  as  the  first  of  the  long  line 
of  Califs.  Abu-Bekr  led  the  Moslems  in  the 
war  which  had  been  declared  against  Syria. 
The  triumph  of  the  Mohammedan  army  was 
everywhere  complete,  for  the  Persians  were 
routed  in  several  battles  and  even  a  Roman 
imperial  army  was  utterly  annihilated.  At  his 
death  Abu-Bekr  named  Omar  as  his  successor, 
and  under  him  Jerusalem  was  captured. 
Under  his  able  leadership,  too,  Persia  was 
utterly  subjugated,  Egypt  invaded,  and 
Alexandria  captured.  When  Omar  was 
assassinated  in  644,  a  Council  of  Six  appointed 
Othman,  a  son-in-law  of  the  Prophet,  to  the 
Califate.  It  was  under  this  sovereign  that  th>e 
text  of  the  Koran  was  definitely  established, 
but  his  rule  was  too  weak  to  suit  the  warlike 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       141 


race  he  had  been  appointed  to  command,  and 
he  was  murdered  at  Medina  in  656. 

The  various  conquests  made  by  the  Moslems, 
however,  belong  henceforth  to  the  province  of 
history  rather  than  of  religion,  and  it  only 
remains  to  mention  the  two  sects  into  which 
the  Faith  was  at  an  early  period  divided. 
Mention  has  already  been  made  of  one  of 
the  early  converts  of  Mohammed,  his  cousin 
AH.  After  the  Prophet's  death  there  was  a 
large  party  which  believed  that  Ali  and 
not  Abu-Bekr  was  entitled  to  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Faithful,  and  they  have  ever  since 
championed  the  descendants  of  Ali  against  the 
orthodox  califs.  The  members  of  this  sect  are 
known  as  Shiites  (" Sectaries"),  as  opposed  to 
the  Sunnites  or  Orthodox  Moslems.  Generally 
speaking,  the  Shiites  are  much  stronger  in 
Persia  than  elsewhere,  but  they  are  also 
found  scattered  through  India,  Egypt  and 
Turkey  to  the  number  of  ten  millions.  The 
theological  differences  of  opinion,  often  mere 
quibbles,  which  divide  the  two  sects,  scarcely 
merit  discussion  here.  Whatever  other 
divergences  there  may  be,  both  Shiites  and 
Sunnites  maintain  firm  and  unaltered  the 
essential  principle  of  recognising  Allah  as  the 
only  God  and  Mohammed  as  his  only  Prophet. 


- 


CHAPTER  VII 

Mohammedanism  continued.  The  Koran — Its  form — 
The  psychology  of  Mohammed — Themes  dealt 
with  in  the  Koran — The  poetical  Suras — Legal 
decisions — Holy  wars — The  ethics  of  Islamism 
— Commentaries  on  the  Koran — Islamic  fatalism — 
Development  of  Mohammedanism  —  Sunnites  — 
Shiites — Babism — Behaism. 

THE  religion  of  some  200,000,000  Moslems 
all  the  world  over  is  founded  upon  the  Koran. 
This  is  a  book  about  which  there  can  be  little 
"  higher  criticism/'  The  revelations  in  it 
came  direct  from  Allah  to  Mohammed- 
revelations  which  are  attested  by  hundreds 
of  the  Prophet's  contemporaries  and  confirmed 
by  a  long  Arabic  tradition.  The  Koran  is 
probably  entitled  to  the  claim  of  the 
Mohammedans  that  it  is  the  most  widely- 
read  book  in  existence  ;  for  it  enters  into  the 
life  of  the  people  even  more  than  the  Bible  does 
in  a  country  like  England,  and  consequently 
much  more,  of  course,  than  the  Bible  does 
in  the  countries  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 
Besides,  as  an  index  to  the  spiritual  develop- 
ment of  a  remarkable  man,  the  Koran  has  a 

further  claim  upon  our  attention. 

142 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       143 

To  state  the  case  thus,  however,  is  hardly  put- 
ting the  matter  before  the  reader  with  sufficient 
emphasis.  For  something  like  three-quarters 
of  a  century  both  the  Old  and  the  New  Testa- 
ments have  been  subjected  to  a  strict  investi- 
gation at  the  hands  of  scholars,  philologists, 
archaeologists,  and  historians,  and  this  minute 
enquiry  has  not  left  the  once  powerful  book 
altogether  uninjured.  We  can  now  distinguish 
better  between  the  mythological  part  of  the  Old 
Testament,  such  as  the  story  of  the  Creation, 
and  matters  of  actual  fact,  such  as  the  par- 
ticulars concerning  Babylon.  A  psychological 
analysis  shows  us  what  a  magnificent  and 
virile  race  the  Jews  were  about  the  time  of  their 
kings,  and  how  they  had  gradually  degenerated 
about  the  time  when  Jeremiah  was  permitted  to 
lament  with  the  enemy  at  the  gates.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  complete  distinction  between 
the  strong  and  masculine  morality  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  rather  effeminate  morality 
of  the  New,  led  Nietzsche  to  suggest  that  it  was 
inadvisable  to  continue  to  mix  oil  and  water  by 
continuing  to  bind  the  two  Testaments  together. 

The  morality  of  even  the  later  Jewish 
prophets,  however,  is  masculine  and  aristo- 
cratic as  compared  with  that  of  the  Christian 
apostles,  which  is  feminine  and  democratic. 


144  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

Complaints   of  this   nature   cannot    be   laid 
against  the  Koran.     It  did  not  develop  in  the 
course  of  thousands  of  years,  but   was  com- 
posed in  the  lifetime  of  one  man.     True,  the 
impression  left  on  the  reader's  mind  by  a  first 
perusal  of  the  Koran — it  is  somewhat  shorter 
than   the   New   Testament  —  may  be  one  of 
chaos,  but  the  book  is  nevertheless  an  organic 
unity.     It  represents  the  fundamental  tenets  of 
Islam,  a    healthy  morality,    an  adequate    rule 
of  life.     Since  the  quietism  of  the  Buddhist 
is  influencing  Europe  through  the  theosophists, 
since  the  modern  Jews  are  neglecting  the  hard- 
ness of  the  earlier  parts  of  the  Old  Testament 
for  the  weaker  morality  preached  by  the  later 
prophets,  since  Christianity,  as    is    natural,  is 
inoculating  as  much   of  the   world    as  it  can 
reach  with  the  degenerate  principles  of  humani- 
tarianism,  let  us  be  thankful  that  there  are  many 
millions  of  Moslems  to  show  us  a  religion  which 
is  not  afraid  to  acknowledge  the  manly  virtues 
of  war,    courage,    strength,    and    daring  --a 
religion  which  does  not  seek  new  followers  by 
means  of  cunning  dialectics  ;  but  which  boldly 
makes  converts  with  the  sword. 

How  the  Koran  was  developed   is   told   in 
the  book  itself.     The  "  mother  of  the  book  "- 
i.e.,  the  original  text — is  in  Heaven.     Section 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST        145 

by  section  it  was  conveyed  to  the  Prophet  by 
a  process  of  "  sending  down  "  (tanzil).  Some- 
times the  medium  is  an  angel,  called  in  Sura 
xxvi.  193,  "the  spirit,"  in  Sura  xvi.  104, 
"  the  holy  spirit,"  and  in  Sura  ii.  91  "  Gabriel." 
The  Prophet  repeats  the  revelation  after  the 
angel  and  then  communicates  it  to  the  world 
at  large. 

We  will  teach  thee  to  recite  the  Koran,  nor  aught 
shalt  thou  forget.  .  .  .  Warn,  therefore,  for  the  warning 
is  profitable  :  He  that  feareth  God  will  receive  the 
warning,  and  the  most  reprobate  only  will  turn  aside 
from  it.  (Sura  Ixxxvii.) 

Nflldeke  suggests  that  all  this  was  but 
"  Mohammed's  own  crude  attempt  to  show 
how  the  ideas  he  put  forth  really  took  shape 
in  his  own  mind."  But,  in  the  light  of 
modern  psychological  research,  this  explanation 
is  untenable,  and  smacks  of  the  scholar  who 
is  but  rarely  troubled  with  visions  of  any 
sort  himself.  Mohammed  was  simply  gifted 
with  that  extreme  sensibility  which,  even  in 
our  own  cold  climate,  has  given  to  many 
a  genius  the  outward  aspect  of  a  shy,  stammer- 
ing imbecile — not  to  mention  the  periods  of 
nervous  depression  from  which  so  many  great 
men  have  been  known  to  suffer.  Standing 
in  awe  of  the  Almighty,  Mohammed  believed 


K 


146  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

that  the  divine  commands  came  to  him 
through  a  mediator.  This,  however,  is  far 
from  the  Christian  concept  of  a  Saviour,  whose 
intercession  is  necessary  to  save  the  souls  of 
his  followers.  Mohammed  never  claimed  any 
of  the  qualities  which  are  ascribed  to  Christ, 
who  has  probably  suffered  more  through  his 
disciples  than  any  other  ancient  prophet. 

It  is  explicitly  affirmed  in  the  Koran  that 
the  sacred  book  was  revealed  gradually  and 
not  all  at  one  time.  This  is  particularly  clear 
in  Sura  xxv.  34,  where  we  also  find  traces 
of  the  Jewish  influence  under  which  the  Prophet 
had  come,  probably  through  the  Hanifs  : 

We  have  given  to  every  prophet  an  enemy  from  among 
the  wicked  ones — but  thy  Lord  is  sufficient  guide  and  helper. 

And  the  infidels  say,  "  Unless  the  Koran  be  sent  down 
to  him  all  at  once.  .  .  ."  But  in  this  way  We  would 
stablish  thy  heart  by  it ;  in  parcels  have  We  parcelled 
out  to  thee  ; 

Nor  shall  they  come  to  thee  with  puzzling  questions, 
but  We  will  come  to  thee  with  the  truth  and  their  best 
solution. 

Heretofore  We  gave  the  law  to  Moses,  and  appointed 
his  brother  Aaron  to  be  his  councillor  : 

And  We  said :  Go  ye  to  the  people  who  treat  our  signs 
as  lies."  And  them  destroyed  We  with  utter  destruction. 

And  as  to  the  people  of  Noah  !  When  they  treated 
their  apostles  as  impostors,  We  drowned  them  ;  and  We 
made  them  a  sign  to  mankind : — a  grievous  chastisement 
have  We  prepared  for  the  wicked.1 

1  The  "We"  is  the  Almighty,  being  often  represented  by  the 
Prophet  as  using  this  royal  form. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       147 

The  revelations  issued  piece  by  piece  were 
known  singly  as  a  "Koran,"  i.e.,  a  reading, 
a  recitation,  a  "kitab,"  or  writing,  and  a 
"Sura,"  the  late  Hebrew  "shuran,"  meaning 
"series."  The  latter  name  even  during 
Mohammed's  lifetime,  came  to  be  given  to 
the  separate  chapters  of  the  work,  the  whole 
being  known  as  the  Koran.  The  very  unequal 
length  of  the  chapters  has  led  critics  to  believe 
that  the  longer  ones — since  the  short  ones  are 
complete  in  themselves — are  merely  several 
revelations  strung  together.  It  is  often 
difficult  for  the  student  to  decide  how  to  pick 
out  of  the  longer  Suras  the  shorter  sections 
which  should  really  be  placed  separately;  but 
Rodwell,  in  his  excellent  translation  and  re- 
arrangement of  the  Koran,  has  done  this 
probably  as  well  as  it  can  ever  be  done.  A 
few  of  the  longer  Suras,  nevertheless,  are 
undoubtedly  homogeneous,  such  as  xx,  which 
deals  with  the  history  of  Moses.  In  the 
different  narrations,  however,  the  Prophet 
sometimes  passes  carelessly  from  one  branch 
of  the  subject  to  another,  or,  indeed,  often 
to  a  totally  different  subject,  and  transitional 
clauses  are  often  omitted.  Both  Weil  and 
Noldeke  remind  us  that  such  abrupt  transitions 
are  also  common  in  Arabic  poetry. 


148  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

For  centuries  men  gravely  disputed  whether 
Mohammed  was  really  inspired,  whether  he 
was  a  madman,  or  whether  he  was  an  impostor. 
In  one  of  his  most  brilliant  aphorisms,  however, 
Nietzsche  had  dealt  with  the  question  of 
madness  and  its  influence  on  religious  spirits. 
Mohammed's  prophetic  ecstasy,  like  the 
prophetic  ecstasy  of  Nietzsche  himself,  who 
also  boldly  claimed  inspiration,  must  not  be 
mistaken  for  the  ordinary  insanity  of,  say, 
an  over-worked  financier. 

"If,"  says  Nietzsche,  "despite  that  formid- 
able pressure  of  the  'morality  of  custom,' 
under  which  all  human  communities  lived, 
new  and  divergent  ideas,  valuations,  and 
impulses  have  made  their  appearance  time 
after  time,  this  state  of  things  has  been  brought 
about  only  with  the  assistance  of  a  dreadful 
associate  :  it  was  insanity  almost  everywhere 
that  paved  the  way  for  the  new  thought  and 
cast  off  the  spell  of  an  old  custom  and  supersti- 
tion. ...  In  our  own  time  we  continually 
hear  the  statement  reiterated  that  genius  is 
tinctured  with  madness  instead  of  good  sense. 
Men  of  earlier  ages  were  far  more  inclined  to 
believe  that,  wherever  traces  of  insanity  showed 
themselves,  a  certain  proportion  of  genius 
and  wisdom  was  likewise  present — something 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       149 

6  divine,'  as  they  whispered  to  one  another.  .  . 
'  All  the  greatest  benefits  of  Greece  have  sprung 
from  madness,'  said  Plato,  setting  on  record 
the  opinion  of  the  entire  ancient  world.  Let 
us  take  a  step  further  :  All  those  superior  men 
who  felt  themselves  irresistibly  urged  on  to 
throw  off  the  yoke  of  some  morality  or  other, 
had  no  other  resource — //  they  were  not  really 
mad — than  to  feign  madness,  or  actually  to 
become  insane.  And  this  holds  good  for 
innovators  in  every  department  of  life,  and 
not  only  in  religion  and  politics." 

Mohammed  corresponded  in  many  respects 
to  the  type  thus  outlined  ;  and  that  such  a 
man  could  be  a  comparatively  late-comer  in 
the  domain  of  religions  may  be  easily  traced  to 
his  Arabic  origin.  Unmolested  by  the  Greeks 
and  Romans,  and  interfered  with  only  very 
slightly  by  the  missionaries  of  the  early 
Christian  churches,  the  Arabs  maintained 
their  healthy  pagan  state,  as  has  already  been 
indicated,  until  the  fifth  or  sixth  century  of 
our  era.  The  Arabs  owed  their  good  fortune 
in  this  respect  to  their  purity  of  race — a  purity 
which  the  Romans  had  lost,  owing  to  the  influx 
of  the  barbarians  and  the  rise  of  the  slave 
classes  under  the  influence  of  Christianity. 
All  the  Prophet's  epileptic  fits  were  but  the 


150  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

ecstasy  of  an  inspired  feeling,  and  in  his  later 
years  he  was  able  to  make  good  use  of  this 
power  to  promulgate  laws  for  the  benefit  of 
his  subjects  to  which  they  might  not  otherwise 
have  submitted  so  tractably  —  the  common 
people  never  know  what  is  good  for  them. 
When  Mohammed,  for  instance,  condemned 
the  unlimited  polygamy  of  the  Arabs  and 
directed  that  a  man  should  not  take  more  than 
four  wives,  and  only  then  if  he  could  treat  them 
all  with  equal  love  and  justice,  he  was  effecting 
a  tremendous  revolution.  But  it  was  the  Word 
of  God ;  and  no  complaints  were  made  against 
the  pronouncements  of  the  Prophet  of  God. 

As  to  the  literary  form  of  the  work,  it  is 
fairly  clear  that  Mohammed  himself  did  not 
write  down  any  part  of  it.  It  would  appear  that 
he  always  had  someone  ready  at  hand  in  Mecca 
to  take  down  his  later  revelations  shortly  after 
he  had  "  heard  "  them ;  and  this  practice  was 
kept  up  at  Medina,  where  one  of  his  followers 
was  always  summoned  to  write  down  the  legal 
decisions  given  by  the  Prophet.  Sometimes, 
indeed,  Mohammed  altered  his  early  Suras  by 
having  certain  passages  erased  and  others 
added  ;  while  at  times,  doubtless  misled  by 
his  memory,  he  would  dictate  the  same  Sura 
in  almost  identical  terms  to  two  or  three 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST        151 

different  disciples.  In  Sura  xvi.  103,  we 
find  that  unbelievers  sometimes  taunted  the 
Moslems  with  this:  "And  when  we  change 
one  verse  for  another,  and  God  knoweth  best 
what  he  revealeth,  they  say  :  '  Thou  art  only 
a  fabricator.'  Nay !  but  most  of  them  have 
no  knowledge."  And  it  may  be  remarked  in 
passing  that  if  Mohammed  had  been  the  mere 
hypocrite  and  impostor  made  familiar  to  us  by 
the  works  of  intolerant  Christians,  verses  like 
these  would  scarcely  ever  have  made  their 
appearance  in  the  Koran. 

A  ready  answer  is  forthcoming  from  the 
Prophet  when  he  is  taunted  with  even  chang- 
ing the  legal  decisions  given  in  certain  parts 
of  the  Koran.  God,  he  explains,  is  a  despot, 
who  varies  his  commands  at  pleasure,  regard- 
ing right  and  wrong  as  merely  relative  and  not 
absolute  terms.  Thus,  God  may  prescribe  one 
law  for  the  Christians,  another  for  the  Jews, 
and  a  third  for  the  Moslems,  while,  if  it 
pleases  him  to  do  so,  he  will  even  alter 
his  commands  to  the  Moslems.  Therefore, 
although  a  revelation  might  abrogate  one 
which  had  gone  before,  Mohammed  some- 
times permitted  the  earlier  one  to  stand,  in 
order  that  his  followers  might  be  instructed 
and  edified  by  both.  It  has  been  remarked 


152  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

that  Mohammed's  foresight  did  not  extend  to 
the  great  empire  which  his  teaching  was 
destined  to  build  up  ;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  his  revelations  easily  kept  pace  with 
current  events.  The  faithful  in  Medina  used 
often  to  give  utterance  to  loud  expressions  of 
admiration  when  a  question  of  momentary 
urgency  was  answered  by  a  revelation  just  at 
the  right  time.  It  would  seem,  too,  that  the 
revelation  coincided  at  times  with  the  opinions 
previously  expressed  by  Mohammed's  most 
attached  disciples.  "  Omar  would  expound 
certain  views,"  says  a  Moslem  commentator 
with  much  naivete,  f<  and  the  Koran  would  be 
revealed  in  accordance  therewith." 

Like  the  books  of  the  Bible,  the  different 
chapters  of  the  Koran  deal  with  varied  themes. 
In  some  passages  we  find  moral  reflections, 
meditations  on  the  greatness  of  God  as  mani- 
fested in  nature  and  history,  and  condemna- 
tions of  idolatry.  Other  passages  depict  the 
joys  of  Heaven  and  the  terrors  of  Hell,  and  also 
the  terror  of  the  last  day,  when  the  world  is 
to  be  judged.  There  are  general  directions  for 
believers,  rebukes  for  backsliders  and  the  luke- 
warm, and  there  is  a  punishment  for  the  enemies 
of  Islam.  The  later  Suras  especially  deal  with 
legal  decisions.  Murder  may  be  punished 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST        153 

with  death  or,  in  certain  cases,  by  the  pay- 
ment of  a  fine  to  the  family  of  the  murdered 
man.  Thefts  were  punished  at  first  by  mutila- 
tion, such  as  the  cutting  off"  of  a  hand  or  foot. 
But,  in  later  times,  the  ordinary  European 
punishment  of  imprisonment,  or  the  more 
Oriental  punishment  of  the  bastinado,  has 
been  substituted.  No  punishment,  however, 
was  inflicted  for  theft  if  the  property  were 
easy  of  access  to  the  thief,  or  if  it  con- 
sisted of  food  which  a  starving  man  took  to 
satisfy  his  hunger.  The  poor,  it  may  be  re- 
marked, are  much  better  looked  after  among 
Mohammedans  than  among  Christians,  for 
each  man  gives  up  a  fortieth  part,  that  is  2j 
per  cent.,  of  his  possessions  to  the  poor.  This 
money  goes  into  the  public  treasury,  and 
besides  being  used  to  help  the  needy,  is  applied 
to  the  redemption  of  slaves.  Unchastity  on 
the  part  of  a  woman  was  at  first  punished  by 
imprisonment  for  life,  but  this  penalty  was 
afterwards  altered  to  stoning  in  the  case  of  a 
married  woman,  and  a  hundred  stripes  and  a 
certain  period  of  exile  in  the  case  of  an  un- 
married woman.  Slaves  were  punished  less 
severely.  Apostasy  from  Islam  is,  according 
to  the  Koran,  to  be  punished  with  death  unless 
the  offender  comes  back  to  the  fold  after  having 


154  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

been  thrice  warned.  Severe  penalties  are  also 
inflicted  for  blasphemy,  whether  against  God, 
Mohammed,  Christ,  Moses,  or  any  other 
prophet. 

Another  injunction  in  the  Koran  which  was 
for  centuries  carried  out  on  an  extended  scale 
relates  to  the  making  of  war  against  infidels. 
A  Moslem  slain  while  carrying  out  a  holy  war 
was  looked  upon  as  a  martyr  and  admitted  to 
the  joys  of  Heaven,  while  it  was  prescribed 
that  a  deserter  should  forfeit  his  life  not  only 
in  this  world  but  also  in  the  world  to  come. 
At  first  all  prisoners  taken  in  battle  were  slain 
on  the  spot,  but  later  on  it  became  the  practice 
to  give  captives  three  choices  :  (i)  To  become 
followers  of  Mohammed,  in  which  case  they 
were  at  once  freed  and  became  entitled  to  all 
the  privileges  of  Moslems  ;  (2)  To  pay  an 
agreed  tribute,  in  which  case,  if  the  religion  of 
the  unbelievers  did  not  include  gross  idolatry, 
their  spiritual  affairs  were  left  to  themselves  ; 
or  (3)  to  decide  the  quarrel  by  a  further  com- 
bat, in  which  case,  if  the  Moslems  won,  as  they 
almost  invariably  did,  the  captive  women  and 
children  were  carried  off  as  slaves,  while  the 
men  had  the  alternatives  of  being  slain  or 
becoming  Moslems.  When  in  the  course  of 
time  cases  arose  for  discussion  which  could  not 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST         155 

be  settled  by  appealing  to  the  Koran  for  a 
precedent,  the  few  additional  sayings  of 
Mohammed  not  included  in  the  Koran  were 
sometimes  used  as  the  basis  for  a  decision, 
though  as  a  rule  the  pronouncement  of  the 
calif  was  binding.  As  a  result  of  these  post- 
Mohammedan  decisions,  however,  certain  con- 
tradictions, usually  of  little  importance,  are  to 
be  found  between  the  actual  practice  of  to- 
day and  the  spirit  of  the  Moslem  Bible. 

It  has  often  been  remarked  by  critics,  includ- 
ing even  scholars  so  different  in  temperament 
as  Sale,  De  Sacy,  Muir,  Burckhardt,  and 
Noldeke,  that  what  has  least  changed  about 
Islamism  in  the  course  of  centuries  is  its  ethics. 
The  complete  ethical  system  of  the  Koran  can- 
not naturally  be  found  summed  up  in  two  or 
three  Suras,  but  must  be  judged  from  the  spirit 
of  the  book  taken  as  a  whole.  Injustice,  lying, 
revengefulness,  and  avarice  are  all  inveighed 
against  in  the  Koran,  as  they  are  by  Moham- 
medan preachers  at  the  present  day.  The 
Mohammedans  of  the  twentieth  century,  how- 
ever, like  the  Mohammedans  of  the  seventh, 
endeavour  to  act  up  to  their  professions. 

Whether  Mohammed  really  made  use  of 
written  sources  or  not  for  his  revelations  is  a 
question  which  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  settle 


156  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

now.  But,  in  view  of  the  many  anachronisms 
and  misquotations  scattered  through  the  stories, 
it  would  seem  not.  In  one  chapter,  for 
example,  Noah  is  made  to  declaim  against  the 
worship  of  certain  false  gods  who,  however, 
do  not  appear  to  have  been  adored  by  the 
early  Jews  at  all,  but  by  the  inhabitants  of 
Mecca  and  the  neighbouring  districts  in 
Mohammed's  own  time.  Many  of  the  his- 
torical sections  of  the  Koran  deal  with  scriptural 
characters,  but  there  are  many  divergences  in 
the  quotations  concerning  them.  For  example, 
Miriam,  the  sister  of  Moses,  is  identified  with 
the  Virgin  Mary,  from  which  we  can  only  con- 
ceive that  Mohammed  entirely  misunderstood 
some  anecdote  related  to  him  by  one  of  the 
Hanifs,  or  which  is  just  as  likely,  that  the 
Hanif  himself  had  confused  what  he  had  heard 
or  read.  There  are,  however,  a  few  passages 
in  the  Koran  which  directly  resemble  the  text 
of  the  Old  Testament.  Compare,  for  example, 
Sura  xxi.  105,  with  Psalms  xxxvii.  29,  where 
Mohammed  quotes  the  sentence  :  "  My  servants, 
the  righteous,  shall  inherit  the  earth."  Again, 
Sura  vii.  48,  may  be  compared  with  Luke  xvi. 
24.  But,  even  here,  Mohammed  might  easily 
have  picked  up  these  texts  in  conversation  with 
a  Jew  or  a  Christian,  or  even  from  some  of  the 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       157 

Hanifs  who  had  come  into  contact  with  Jews  or 
Christians.  It  is  undisputed  that  Mohammed 
became  friendly  with  highly-cultured  Jews 
when  he  had  resided  for  some  time  at  Medina, 
and  it  would  appear  that  he  had  an  opportunity 
of  studying  some  of  the  later  Jewish  writings, 
such  as  the  Talmud  or  the  Mishna.  In  Sura 
iv.  46,  for  example,  we  find  the  verse  :  "  If  ye 
be  sick  or  on  a  journey  or  have  come  from 
the  unclean  place  or  have  touched  a  woman 
and  ye  find  not  water,  then  rub  pure  sand  and 
bathe  your  face  and  your  hands  in  it,"  which, 
as  both  Rodwell  and  Noldeke  point  out,  corre- 
sponds to  one  of  the  Talmudic  ordinances.  In 
regard  to  the  style  and  aesthetic  value  of  the 
Koran,  it  must  be  recognised  that  different 
parts  of  the  book  are  of  unequal  value.  The 
early  Suras  are  distinguished  by  their  passion 
and  their  vigorous  imagination,  interspersed 
with  scraps  of  poetical  phraseology,  which 
enables  us  to  perceive  why  a  trading  community, 
such  as  that  of  Mecca,  should  regard  their 
eccentric  fellow-citizen  as  a  "  possessed  poet." 
While  in  places  the  style  of  the  Koran  is  touch- 
ing and  impressive,  much  of  it  is  decidedly 
stiff,  prosaic.  Of  course  one  would  scarcely 
expect  to  find  the  legal  decisions  set  down  with 
the  passion  of  a  Hebrew  prophet,  but 


158  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

Mohammed  made  what  would  seem  to  most 
critics  the  grave  mistake  of  employing  a 
rhyming  and  poetical  form  when  dealing  with 
prosaic  themes,  such  as  the  punishment  of 
theft.  But  we  must  not  forget  that,  however 
unsuitable  this  form  of  writing  may  seem  to  us 
now,  it  had  quite  a  different  effect  when  recited 
on  Arabian  soil  twelve  centuries  ago.  Both 
style  and  matter  were  necessarily  new  to  the 
Prophet's  hearers.  Let  it  be  agreed  that  many 
passages  in  the  Koran  are  awkwardly  composed, 
that  the  iterations  are  tiresome,  that  the 
rhymed  prose  ambles  along  in  a  jingling  fashion 
now  and  then,  these  defects  of  language  will 
hardly  surprise  us  if  we  always  bear  in  mind 
that  beginnings  are  difficult,  and  that,  however 
much  poetry  might  have  been  written  in  Arabic 
before  Mohammed's  time,  the  Koran  was  the 
first  prose  work.  Besides,  if  Mohammed's 
primary  aim  was  to  persuade  and  convince,  as 
we  must  admit  that  it  was,  we  cannot  deny  that 
that  aim  has  been  achieved  on  a  scale  undreamt 
of  even  by  the  Prophet  himself. 

Weil  would  divide  the  Koran  chronologically 
into  three  distinct  periods  ;  but  it  is  not  easy, 
even  with  the  help  of  RodwelPs  notes,  to  draw 
any  sharp  lines  of  demarcation  between  the 
divisions.  A  certain  broad  distinction  between 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       159 

the  Suras  given  out  at  Mecca  and  those  written 
down  at  Medina  is  tolerably  clear.  In  Mecca 
Mohammed  was  merely  a  preacher  of  little 
importance,  addressing  a  congregation  of  equally 
little  importance.  Hence  the  short  early  Suras 
are  characterised  by  all  the  passion  of  the  neg- 
lected prophet,  the  pent-up  excitement  of  the 
man  with  a  message.  There  are  strange  oaths 
and  visions,  powerful  advocates  of  the  joy  or 
torments  to  be  experienced  in  the  next  world. 
Then  come  the  terrible  imprecations  against 
the  Meccans  for  their  sneers  at  the  messenger 
of  God.  In  the  second  period,  as  the  Prophet 
began  to  gather  a  small  congregation  about  him, 
the  glowing  imagination  of  the  Suras  gives 
way  to  arguments  and  proofs.  References  are 
made  to  the  prophets  of  an  earlier  day,  and 
the  style  gradually  become  less  poetical.  It  is 
to  the  beginning  of  this  period  that  the  Moslem 
Lord's  Prayer  is  assigned — a  touching  appeal  : 

IN  THE  NAME  OF  GOD,  THE  COMPASSIONATE  THE  MERCIFUL. 

Praise  be  to  God,  Lord  of  the  worlds  ! 
The  compassionate,  the  merciful  ! 
King  on  the  day  of  reckoning  ! 

Thee  only  do  we  worship,  and  to  thee  do  we  cry  for  help. 
Guide  thou  us  on  the  straight  path, 

The  path  of  those  to  whom  thou  hast  been  gracious — with 
whom  thou  art  not  angry,  and  who  go  not  astray. 

Rodwell  gives  the  following  transliteration 


160  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

of  the  Arabic  characters  as  a  specimen  of  the 
rhymed  prose  in  which  the  Koran  is  written  :— 

Bismillahi  'rahhmani  'rahheem. 
El-hamdoo  lillahi  rabi  'lalameen. 
Arrahhmani  raheem. 
Maliki  Yewmi-d-deen. 
Eyaka  naboodoo,  waeyaka  nestaeen. 
Ihdina  'ssirat  almostakeem. 

Sirat  alezeena  anhamta  aleihim,  gheiri-'l  nughdoobi  alei- 
him,  wala  dsaleen.     Ameen. 

Many  of  the  expressions  in  the  original 
Arabic  of  the  prayer  are  borrowed  from  Jewish 
sources,  in  particular  the  word  "  'rahhmani," 
meaning  literally  "  compassioner,"  the  Jewish 
word  for  God  during  the  Talmudic  period. 
Mohammed  apparently  thought  of  using  it 
instead  of  Allah,  the  name  of  the  supreme 
heathen  deity  worshipped  by  the  Arabs,  think- 
ing possibly  that,  as  the  Arabic  root  "rhm," 
also  meant  pity,  the  new  name  would  be  better 
understood.  He  ultimately  gave  up  this  plan, 
but  the  Jewish  word  is  often  met  with  in  the 
Suras  of  the  second  period. 

The  third  division  of  the  Koran  is  that  in 
which  we  meet  with  the  more  logical  arguments, 
legal  decisions,  etc.  Noldeke  thinks  it  was 
largely  instrumental  in  promoting  the  faith 
among  the  higher  classes  of  Arabs,  who  were 
more  inclined  to  listen  to  reasoned  discourses 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       161 

than  to  the  fiery  words  of  the  early  Suras.1 
There  are  also  frequent  outbursts  against  the 
Jews,  with  whom,  as  already  remarked,  Mo- 
hammed came  into  contact  at  Medina,  but 
there  is  comparatively  little  concerning  the 
Christians,  who  were  few  in  number  in  the 
district. 

After  the  Prophet's  death  began  the  task  of 
collecting  the  scattered  fragments  of  the  Koran. 
The  work  was  entrusted  by  the  Calif  Abu-Bekr 
to  Zaid,  a  native  of  Medina,  who  had  often 
acted  as  Mohammed's  secretary.  According 
to  the  account  which  has  come  down  to  us, 
and  which  is  looked  upon  as  being,  on  the 
whole,  accurate,  Zaid  collected  the  revelations 
from  copies  written  on  flat  stones,  pieces  of 
leather,  the  "ribs"  of  palm-leaves,  and  lastly 
"  from  the  breasts  of  men,"  i.e.,  memory.  From 
all  these  materials  he  was  able  to  compile  a  fair 
copy  of  the  sacred  book.  This  he  handed  over 
to  the  calif ;  but  in  the  course  of  time,  when 
other  copies  were  made  from  this  and  diver- 
gences began  to  creep  into  the  text,  the  necessity 
of  having  an  authorised  version,  especially  in 
view  of  political  difficulties  which  were  impend- 
ing, was  urged  upon  the  Calif  Othman.  The 
services  of  Zaid  were  once  more  requisitioned, 

1  For  a  counter-argument,  -vide  p.  168. 


162  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

and  with  three  Koraish  chiefs  he  prepared  a 
canonical  edition  of  the  Koran  from  as  many 
different  copies  as  they  could  gather.  To  pre- 
vent further  disputes,  all  the  earlier  codices 
were  burnt,  an  action  which,  however  much 
later  textual  critics  may  regret  it,  effectually 
silenced  all  disputes  as  to  the  authenticity  of 
this  or  that  text. 

When  issuing  this  new  version  of  the  Koran, 
the  Suras  were  not  set  down  in  any  particular 
order.  The  short  Moslem  prayer  just  quoted 
was  placed  first,  and  is  usually  referred  to  as 
the  first  Sura,  though  Rodwell  makes  it  the 
eighth  in  his  edition  of  the  Koran.  The  remain- 
ing chapters  seemed  to  be  arranged  on  the  prin- 
ciple that  the  long  Suras  should  be  placed  first 
and  the  shorter  ones  last,  though  even  this  plan 
was  not  adhered  to  in  many  instances.  There 
is  no  doubt,  however,  that  the  editors  were 
fully  aware  of  the  importance  of  their  task, 
and  that  their  version  is  genuine.  No  interpola- 
tions were  made  in  the  text,  and  apparently 
nothing  that  really  belonged  to  it  was  excluded. 
When  the  edition  had  been  prepared,  four 
manuscript  copies  were  at  once  written  out. 
One  copy  was  sent  to  Damascus,  a  second 
to  Basra,  and  a  third  to  Cufa,  the  fourth 
being  retained  at  Medina.  It  is  from  these 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST  163 

four  originals  that  all   later  copies  have  been 
derived. 

There  was  a  tradition  afterwards  among  the 
Arabs  that  one  codex  had  not  been  destroyed 
by  Zaid  and  his  assistants,  viz.,  the  Obay  codex. 
From  the  few  particulars  we  have  concerning 
it,  however,  it  was  apparently  composed  of  the 
same  material  as  Zaid's  edition,  though  the 
Suras  were  not  arranged  in  the  same  order.  A 
few  of  the  different  readings  have  been  pre- 
served, but  they  are  of  very  little  importance. 
The  later  history  of  the  text  of  the  Koran  is 
principally  concerned  with  the  introduction  of 
vowel  signs  which  it  was  found  necessary  to 
add  to  the  consonants  as  the  Arabic  alphabet 
became  more  developed.  Previously  to  the 
use  of  these  vowel  signs,  certain  consonants, 
closely  resembling  one  another  in  outline, 
would  appear  to  have  become  confused. 

From  the  first  or  second  century  of  the 
Flight  various  commentators  have  applied 
themselves  to  the  task  of  elucidating  and 
developing  the  theological  and  ethical  systems 
of  the  Koran.  One  famous  early  commentary 
was  that  of  Tabari  (839-923),  who  ably 
summed  up  the  labours  of  his  predecessors. 
Another  is  that  of  Zamakhshari  (1075-1144), 
whose  subtlety  will  no  doubt  remind  the  reader 


164  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

of  Duns  Scotus.  In  the  course  of  time  a  whole 
literature  has  naturally  grown  up  around  the 
book,  a  literature  which  it  would  almost  be  as 
difficult  a  task  to  classify  as  that  which  has 
grown  up  around  the  Bible.  Two  more  com- 
mentaries may  deserve  to  be  mentioned — that 
of  Baidawi  (thirteenth  century),  which  is  practi- 
cally an  abridgment  of  Zamakhshari's,  and 
that  which  was  prepared  under  the  patronage 
of  Khalaf,  a  tenth-century  calif.  It  runs  to  a 
hundred  volumes. 


The  fatalism  of  the  Mohammedans  has  been 
well  summed  up  by  Baron  Carra  de  Vaux,1  who 
divides  it  into  three  categories.  The  first  he 
designates  by  the  name  "  Moral  Fatalism." 
Man  is  predestined  to  good  or  evil,  Heaven 
or  Hell.  No  matter  what  he  may  do,  he  is 
doomed  to  salvation  or  perdition,  though,  of 
course,  this  does  not  necessarily  mean  that  God 
will  save  him  if  he  commits  a  bad  action  or 
condemn  him  if  he  performs  a  good  one.  This 
doctrine  has  also  been  found  among  certain 
Christian  sects,  such  as  the  Jansenists  and  the 
Calvinists.  The  doctrine  itself  is  not,  com- 
mentators are  generally  agreed,  to  be  found  in 

1  Art.  L'hlamisme  in  Religions  et  Societet.     Alcan,  1905. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST      165 

the  Koran  ;  but  is  much  more  likely  a  survival 
of  the  ancient  paganism  of  the  Arab  tribes. 
This  feeling  of  moral  fatalism,  however,  does 
not  seem  to  have  any  effect  on  the  practical  life 
of  the  Moslems.  f  ( The  sects  which  are  imbued 
with  this  feeling/'  says  Carra  de  Vaux,  ahave 
communicated  to  the  physiognomy  of  their 
adherents  something  bitter,  sombre  and  rest- 
less, which  we  do  not  observe  in  the  appearance 
of  the  other  Moslems,  who  are  calm  in  manner 
and  who  appear  to  be  resigned  to  the  will  of 
God  rather  than  perturbed  by  the  mystery  of 
his  justice."  x 

The  second  type  of  fatalism  is  the  physical  ; 
but  this,  too,  is  rather  a  popular  superstition 
than  a  theological  doctrine.  It  is  principally 
concerned  with  the  nature  of  the  death  reserved 
for  us  :  whatever  you  may  do  you  cannot 
avoid  this  fate.  Take  every  precaution,  if  you 
will,  keep  away  from  danger  as  much  as  you 
may,  at  the  destined  hour,  whatever  has  been 
predestined  to  kill  you  will  kill  you.  Your 
precautions  are  vain.  What  is  written  is 
written.  This  physical  fatalism  has  given  rise 
to  numerous  anecdotes,  and  one  of  the  tales  is 
common  to  the  Arabian  Nights  and  to  Russian 
folk-lore.  A  certain  conqueror  had  a  horse 

1  Art.  L'lslamisme  in  Religions  et  Societes,  p,  127.      Alcan,  1905 


166  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

which  he  greatly  loved.  One  day  a  seer  told 
him  :  <(  That  animal  will  bring  you  your  death." 
Alarmed  at  this,  the  warrior  sent  the  horse  to 
one  of  his  most  distant  castles,  and  after  a  time 
news  of  its  death  was  brought  to  him.  Long 
afterwards  he  happened  to  be  staying  in  this 
castle,  and  he  was  taken  to  a  field  to  see  the 
bones  of  the  horse.  The  conqueror  laughed 
at  the  Fates  which  had  foretold  his  death 
through  this  animal,  and,  to  show  his  contempt, 
kicked  the  head  with  his  foot.  The  movement 
dislodged  a  serpent  which  was  lying  inside  the 
horse's  skull ;  it  bit  the  warrior,  and  he  died 
from  the  effects  of  the  poison. 

But  there  is  a  third  fatalism,  one  which  is 
almost  contained  in  the  word  Islam  itself 
("  resignation ").  This  consists  in  viewing 
fatalism  merely  as  a  profound  and  intense 
abandonment  of  one's  self  to  God  and  His 
Will.  This  is  really  the  foundation  of 
Mohammedanism,  and  may  be  noted  not  only 
in  the  Koran  but  in  the  works  of  Moslem  poets 
and  historians,  and  in  the  demeanour  of  the 
people  at  all  times.  As  de  Vaux  points  out  at 
the  conclusion  of  one  of  his  lectures,  this  con- 
ception of  fatalism  is  quite  opposed  to  the 
outlook  of  Western  civilisation,  which  has 
more  and  more,  in  spite  of  its  religion,  come 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       167 

to  look  upon  life  as  a  struggle  for  existence,  in 
which  reliance  cannot  be  placed  on  a  Supreme 
Being,  but  on  the  concentrated  efforts  of  the 
individual  himself  to  survive. 

While  on  this  subject  of  fatalism,  however, 
a  strong  distinction  must  be  made  between 
what  is  understood  in  Europe  by  this  word 
and  its  signification  to  Orientals.  It  is 
generally  believed  in  the  West  that  a  Hindoo 
or  an  Arabian  thinks  that  all  his  acts  are 
controlled  by  a  destiny  which  he  cannot  avoid. 
The  fact  is  that  this  "destiny"  or  "  fate  "  is 
nothing  more  or  less  than  the  strongly  de- 
veloped Eastern  will.  It  is  this  innate  influence, 
and  not  an  influence  from  any  outside  source, 
which  a  man  must  bow  to  and  follow  in  spite 
of  himself.  It  is  this  also  that  Nietzsche 
referred  to  when  he  made  a  distinction  between 
strong  wills  and  weak  wills  ;  but  it  is  a  dis- 
tinction which  it  is  almost  impossible  to 
convey  to  a  European,  whose  will,  owing  to 
the  influence  of  a  degenerate  religion  and  a 
degenerate  philosophy,  has  almost  disappeared. 
The  traveller  in  Thibet,  Burmah,  or  indeed 
India  proper,  cannot  help  observing  Buddhist 
and  other  ascetics  who  perform  marvellous 
feats  solely  owing  to  an  enormously  developed 
will-power.  There  are  numerous  instances  of 


168  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

religious  men,  who,  in  an  endeavour  to  mortify 
the  flesh,  hold  out  one  arm  at  right  angles  to 
the  body  and  keep  it  in  this  position  for  years. 
There  are  instances  of  others  who  clench  a  fist, 
and  by  the  exertion  of  their  will-power  keep  it 
in  this  position  until  in  time  the  nails  grow 
through  the  back  of  the  hand. 

Again,    the    influence    of    an    idea    on    the 

Oriental   mind   cannot   be   fully   conceived  by 

the   Westerner,   who   is  so   much    accustomed 

to  rely  merely  upon  his  reason  or   dialectical 

arguments.     Napoleon  himself  complained  that 

he   found  it   practically   impossible  to    inspire 

his  European  soldiers  with  enthusiasm  through 

ideas,  and  he  more  than  once  expressed  a  wish 

that  he  had  gone  further  east  when  he  invaded 

Egypt,  put  a  turban  on  his  head,  and  founded 

a  new  empire.     It   is   for    this   reason   that   I 

am  inclined  to  disagree  with  Noldeke,  who,  as 

already  mentioned,  thought  that  the  logical  and 

legal  divisions  of  the  Koran  were  more  likely 

to  be  listened  to  by  the  higher  class  of  Arabs 

than  the  fiery  words  of  the  early  Suras — the 

fact  being  that  only  the  poetical  portions  of  the 

book  would   have    appealed  to  Arabs    of  any 

class,  the  legal  divisions  being  looked  upon  as 

necessary  evils. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       169 

The  Sunnites  as  we  have  seen,  consider  the 
califs  from  Abu-Bekr,  Omar,  and  Othman  as 
the  true  successors  of  the  Prophet  Mohammed, 
while  the  Shiites  look  upon  these  three  califs 
as  usurpers,  and  consequently  their  descendants 
also.  The  Shiites  do  not  recognise  the  spiritual 
authority  of  the  Sultan  at  Constantinople,  and 
they  believe  that  Mohammed's  power  passed  at 
his  death  to  his  son-in-law  Ali,  whose  followers 
were  massacred  by  the  forerunners  of  the 
Sunnites  at  Kerbela — a  place  to  which  the 
Shiites  now  make  regular  pilgrimages  in  order 
to  visit  the  tomb  of  the  Imam  Hussain.  Ali's 
authority  descended  to  twelve  Imams  (priests), 
the  last  of  whom  disappeared  about  the  year  940. 
The  Shiites  wept  over  his  absence  and  awaited 
his  return  some  day,  just  as  the  Christians 
await  the  second  coming  of  Christ. 

In  1 844  (the  year  1260  of  the  Mohammedan 
Calendar)  a  young  man  of  twenty-five,  known 
as  Mirza-Ali-Mohammed,  declared  that  he  was 
the  missing  Imam  Mahdi.  He  took  the  name 
of  Bab,  meaning,  in  Persian,  a  gate  or  door, 
i.e.,  representing  himself  as  the  gate  through 
which  men  would  have  to  pass  to  acquire  a 
knowledge  of  God.  He  was,  in  other  words, 
the  mediator  between  the  Supreme  Being  and 
ordinary  mortals.  Little  is  known  about  the 


170  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

early  years  of  the  Bab.  He  was  born  at  Shiraz 
on  2Oth  October  1819,  belonging  to  a  branch 
of  one  of  those  families  which  claimed  descent 
from  the  Prophet  himself,  and  are  thus  entitled 
to  special  privileges.  We  may  safely  pass  over 
the  numerous  miracles  which  are  attributed  to 
him,  contenting  ourselves  with  the  knowledge 
that  when  he  was  still  young  his  father  died, 
leaving  him  to  be  brought  up  by  an  uncle,  who 
gave  him  some  training  in  his  business  establish- 
ments at  Shiraz  and  Bushire  (Abu-Shehr),  on 
the  Persian  Gulf.  Having  little  aptitude  for 
business,  however,  the  future  Bab  left  his 
uncle  and  visited  the  tomb  of  the  Imam  at 
Kerbela,  where  he  fell  in  with  a  sect  of  Shiites, 
known  as  the  Sheikhis,  led  by  one  Seyyed 
Kazim,  who  were  known  among  the  Shiites 
for  the  earnestness  with  which  they  looked 
forward  to  the  second  coming  of  their  lost 
Imam.  All  their  conversation  bore  upon  this 
particular  point,  and  their  prayers  were  directed 
to  this  end,  all  of  which  no  doubt  influenced 
the  mind  of  their  new  and  enthusiastic  disciple. 
Shortly  afterwards  Mirza  became  friendly  with 
the  well-known  theological  student  Mullah- 
Hussain-Bushruzeh,  another  disciple  of  Seyyed 
Kazim. 

On   the    death    of  Seyyed   Kazim  in  a  few 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       171 

years'  time,  Mullah-Hussain-Bushruzeh  sought 
out  Mirza,  who  had  returned  to  Shiraz,  in 
order  to  talk  over  the  position  of  the  sect. 
It  was  then  that  Mirza  said  that  he  himself 
was  the  embodiment  of  the  missing  Imam, 
whose  return  had  been  awaited  century  after 
century,  and  he  felt  himself  to  be  the  man 
who  was  destined  to  abolish  the  ancient  state 
of  things  and  prepare  the  way  for  new  examples 
of  the  divine  power.  The  day  was  come,  he 
held,  when  man  should  be  freed  from  the 
tyranny  of  the  priests  and  civil  authorities  and 
left  to  follow  the  dictates  of  his  own  conscience, 
apart  from  ancient  commandments  and  super- 
stitions. His  friend  was  naturally  alarmed  at 
this  display  of  what  may  very  justly  be  called 
Moslem  Protestantism,  but  the  eloquence  of 
the  new  prophet  disarmed  all  his  suspicions, 
and  he  began  to  read  with  much  favour  the 
different  works  which  the  Bab  had  composed 
during  the  previous  two  years.  Amongst 
these  a  commentary  on  Sura  xii.  of  the  Koran, 
dealing  with  the  history  of  Joseph,  is  one  of 
the  most  celebrated.  The  connection  between 
the  new  faith  and  the  earlier  forms  of 
Christianity  will  seem  to  a  modern  student  to 
be  very  close.  Justice,  liberty  and  equality  were 
constantly  on  the  lips  of  the  few  followers 


172  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

whom  the  Bab  had  gathered  round  him, 
though,  like  the  early  Christians,  they  failed 
to  see  what  the  consequences  of  liberty  and 
equality  might  be  when  carried  out  to  their 
logical  conclusions.  It  was  not  long  before 
the  faith  began  to  spread  with  great  rapidity.  It 
appealed  to  what  Nietzsche  would  have  called 
the  disinherited  Moslems,  and  in  a  few  months 
the  Bab  was  surrounded  by  the  Persian  free- 
will men,  who  could  "think  for  themselves" 
without  the  help  of  the  priests,  and  by  the 
usual  crowd  of  penniless,  landless,  uninfluential 
and  uncultured  revolutionaries,  who  were 
charmed  to  hear  that,  after  all,  the  priests  and 
prophets  were  not  better  than  they  ought  to 
be,  and  that  they  were  all  brothers  in  Allah. 
Had  not  the  Bab  said  so,  and  was  not  he  the 
missing  Imam,  whose  appearance  they  and 
their  forefathers  had  awaited  with  such  anxiety 
for  centuries  ?  Charming  ! 

In  1845  tne  Bab  carried  out  one  of  the 
Moslem  precepts  by  making  his  pilgrimage 
to  Mecca,  whence  he  returned,  we  are  informed, 
more  than  ever  determined  to  undermine  the 
authority  of  the  clergy  and  to  establish 
"equality/'  i.e.,  to  abolish  order  and  harmony 
and  raise  up  chaos  and  disorder.  While  the  sect 
had  been  making  progress  in  his  absence,  the 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       173 

authorities  became  alarmed,  doubtless  at  the 
political  animosities  which  the  new  theologian 
was  raising  in  the  minds  of  the  lower  classes. 
The  command  was  therefore  issued  for  the 
arrest  of  the  Bab,  who  was  pounced  upon  by 
a  squad  of  infantry  when  he  arrived  from 
Mecca,  and  taken  to  Shiraz.  The  Shah  was 
not  particularly  hostile  to  him,  and  sent  a  high 
dignitary  of  the  palace  clergy  to  speak  to  the 
young  man  and  ascertain  precisely  what  his 
doctrine  actually  meant.  To  his  surprise, 
however,  his  messenger  was  persuaded  by  the 
Bab  into  becoming  his  follower  ;  a  fact  which 
seems  to  indicate  that  the  young  prophet 
was  at  all  events  well  qualified  dialectically. 
Irritated,  not  unnaturally,  the  Shah  then 
ordered  an  assembly  of  Mullahs  to  be  held, 
who,  without,  however,  hearing  the  Bab's  ex- 
planation, declared  him  to  be  a  schismatic, 
and  ordered  him  to  be  placed  under  arrest. 
His  followers  were  also  subjected  to  certain 
penalties,  the  most  common  being  that  of  "ham- 
stringing," in  order  that  they  might  not  be  in 
a  condition  to  propagate  the  heresy  further. 

These  precautions,  however,  proved  in- 
effective. The  Bab  was  imprisoned  in  a 
private  house,  but  he  succeeded  in  converting 
his  guards  and  in  escaping  to  Ispahan.  -Besides 


174  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

this,  his  followers  were  scattered  throughout 
the  country,  and  it  was  therefore  difficult  for 
the  Government  to  run  them  all  to  earth,  and 
the  imprisonment  of  their  leader  led  to  renewed 
agitation  on  the  part  of  the  Bab's  followers. 
Matters  were  allowed  to  drag  for  a  time  until 
the  death  of  the  Shah,  whose  successor,  being 
little  more  than  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  the 
clergy,  proceeded  to  adopt  vigorous  measures 
against  the  new  faith.  Mirza  wrote  to  his 
Highness  before  the  drastic  measures  proposed 
by  the  Government  were  put  into  execution, 
begging  that  he  might  be  permitted  to  go  to 
Teheran  and  discuss  publicly  with  the  Mullahs 
and  the  priests  the  theological  questions  at 
issue.  This  dialectical  proposal,  however,  the 
invariable  subterfuge  of  weak  demagogues, 
was  rejected  by  the  aristocratic  Mullahs,  and 
the  Shah,  anxious  lest  the  young  agitator 
should  create  a  disturbance  in  the  capital,  gave 
orders  that  he  should  be  imprisoned  in  the 
fortress  of  Maku,  in  the  north  of  Persia. 

These  commands,  however,  were  given  out 
too  late  to  be  effective.  The  Bab  had  carried 
his  propaganda  even  into  every  village  in  the 
land,  and  the  movement  had  gathered  in  force. 
One  of  the  principal  intellects  which  had  been 
awakened  by  it  was  that  of  a  woman  belonging 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       175 

to  the  pecular  type  whose  mentality  has  been 
partly  explained  to  us  by  the  investigations  of 
psychologists  like  Weininger.  She  was  known  as 
Kurrat-ul-ayn  (  "  the  consolation  of  the  eyes  "  ), 
and  was  very  beautiful  and  well  educated  ;  but, 
it  would  seem,  as  is  usual  in  such  cases,  without 
sexual  feelings,  her  womanly  passions  having, 
in  the  words  of  a  well-known  German  philo- 
sopher, "mounted  into  the  brain."1 

It  was  one  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Bab,  as  it 
was  of  his  Christian  forerunners,  that  women 

1  should   be   unsexed,    dragged    from   the   pro- 

I  tecting  seclusion  of  the  harem,  and  put  on 
an  "  equality  "  with  man.  Easily  convinced 
of  the  truthfulness  of  the  Prophet's  mission, 

1  Kurrat  willingly  helped  him,  and  undertook 
a  propaganda  among  the  women  of  Persia. 

i  Gobineau  in  his  Histoire  des  Religions  et  Philo- 
sophies dans  I'Asie  Centrale  has  given  a  lengthy 
account  of  the  progress  of  the  Bab,  particularly 
from  1848  to  1850,  when  the  sect  was  closely 
pursued  by  the  Shah's  troops,  during  which 
time  the  Bab  was  once  more  arrested  and  kept 
in  close  confinement.  He  was  still  able  to  com- 
municate with  his  friends,  however,  and  he  also 
revised  the  greater  portion  of  his  works  dealing 

1  The  same  characteristics  will  have  been  remarked  by  those  who 
have  come  into  contact  with  the  English  Suffragists  or  the  "  emanci- 
pated "  American  woman. 


176  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

with  the  doctrines  of  his  sect — the  "  Biyan," 
or  exposition.  He  explains  that  no  revelation 
is  final,  but  that  each  different  prophet  repre- 
sents the  amount  of  truth  which  the  men  of  his 
time  are  capable  of  grasping.  He  believed  that 
the  time  had  come  for  his  countrymen  to  live 
more  strictly  in  accordance  with  the  divine  law, 
and  he  inveighed  at  length  against  the  corrup- 
tion of  the  priests.  A  modern  thinker  may 
find  much  to  agree  with  in  all  this,  but  the 
fatal  defect  of  the  Bab's  doctrine  is  his  putting 
of  the  lower  orders  on  a  level  with  the  higher, 
and  thus  accentuating  the  chaos  introduced  into 
Europe  by  Christianity.  The  high  position 
he  allocates  to  women  is  also  unwarranted  by 
certain  moral  and  physical  factors  which  Goethe 
on  one  occasion  referred  to  in  rather  blunt 
terms. 

Determined  to  check  the  progress  of  the 
new  sect,  the  Government  had  the  Bab  taken 
to  Tabriz,  where,  after  being  tried,  he  was 
condemned  to  be  shot  on  9th  July  1850.  As 
Moslem  soldiers  were  afraid  to  execute  one  who 
was  in  all  likelihood  a  descendant  of  the  family 
of  the  Prophet,  the  work  was  entrusted  to 
Christians.  The  Bab  and  one  of  his  disciples 
were  bound  to  pillars  and  the  word  to  fire  was 
given.  When  the  smoke  cleared  away,  we  are 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       177 

told,  the  disciple  was  found  to  be  dead,  but 
the  Bab  had  not  been  touched.  More  :  as  if 
by  magic,  the  cords  which  bound  him  to  the 
pillar  had  been  cut  through  by  the  bullets,  and 
the  young  prophet  was  free.  If,  as  Hippolyte 
Dreyfus  suggests  in  his  lecture  on  Babism, l 
the  Bab  had  had  the  presence  of  mind  to  walk 
towards  the  crowd,  then  overawed  by  what 
looked  like  a  miracle,  and  urged  them  to  follow 
him,  there  is  no  knowing  what  might  not  have 
happened.  But  he  hesitated,  and  it  was  instinc- 
tively recognised  by,  those  who  witnessed  the 
scene  that  this  was  a  sign  of  spiritual  weakness. 
An  officer  sprang  forward  and  cut  down  the 
young  prophet  with  a  single  stroke  of  his 
sword,  and  the  soldiers  hastily  tied  the  bleed- 
ing figure  to  the  pillar  again.  Another  volley 
was  fired,  but  the  bullets  entered  a  corpse. 

Later  critics  have  suggested  that  the  Govern- 
ment, having  thus  disposed  of  the  leader  of 
the  sect,  should  not  have  troubled  about  his 
followers,  when  the  movement  would  probably 
have  died  a  natural  death.  But  it  is  easy  to 
be  wise  after  the  event,  and  doubtless  the  Shah's 
advisers  acted  for  the  best  when  they  proceeded 
to  inaugurate  a  campaign  against  the  Babis. 
While  the  weaker  spirits  fell  off,  the  stronger, 

1  Religions  et  Societe's.      Alcan,  1905. 


M 


178  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

as  is  always  the  case  in  such  circumstances, 
remained  firm,  and  the  faith  gradually  spread  to 
Turkey  and  Egypt.  In  1852,  however,  some- 
one attempted  to  assassinate  the  Shah.  This 
outrage  was  traced  to  a  Babi  who  wished  to 
avenge  the  death  of  his  leader.  He  had  taken 
a  friend  into  his  confidence,  and  the  two  dis- 
charged their  pistols  at  the  Shah  as  he  was 
coming  out  of  his  palace  at  Teheran.  They 
were  at  once  seized  and  put  to  death  ;  and 
the  incident  afforded  an  excuse  for  a  re- 
doubled campaign  of  violence  against  the 
Babis.  Amongst  others  who  were  tried  and 
killed  in  the  course  of  this  campaign  was  the 
female  disciple  of  the  Bab,  Kurrat-ul-Ayn. 


When  the  Bab's  execution  became  known 
throughout  Persia,  one  of  his  best-known 
followers,  Sobh-I-Ezel,  was  appointed  to 
succeed  him  ;  but  the  latter's  half-brother, 
Mirza-Hussain-Ali,  was  destined  to  exercise 
even  greater  influence  on  the  sect  and  its 
progress.  His  father,  although  connected  with 
the  Court  by  several  strong  ties,  took  little 
interest  in  politics  or  worldly  matters  of  any 
kind,  and  preferred  to  lead  a  quiet  life, 
devoted  to  his  books,  and  his  studies,  a 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       179 

characteristic  which  did  not  descend  to  his 
children.  Mirza-Hussain-Ali  was  one  of  the 
first  to  ally  himself  with  the  Bab  when  the 
young  prophet  began  to  preach,  and  he  suffered 
imprisonment  with  his  leader  during  the  early 
stages  of  the  propaganda.  When  the  massacres 
in  Persia  grew  to  such  a  pitch  as  to  call  forth 
much  disapprobation  from  Europe,  certain 
prisoners,  who  would  otherwise  have  almost 
certainly  been  executed,  were  exiled,  and  among 
them  was  Mirza.  The  Babis  combined  to 
form  a  little  colony  at  Bagdad  under  the 
surveillance  of  the  Ottoman  Government,  and 
in  a  short  time  Mirza  had  successfully  proved 
his  superiority  over  his  half-brother,  in  spite 
of  the  belief  of  the  members  of  the  sect  that 
all  men  were  equal.  Sobh-I-Ezel  was  only 
too  willing  to  relinquish  his  authority  as  leader 
in  favour  of  Mirza,  under  whom  the  little 
colony  prospered  exceedingly. 

It  is  then  that  the  new  leader  of  the  sect 
started  to  codify  its  principles,  his  object  being 
to  efface  anything  of  an  Oriental  nature  from 
the  doctrine  of  the  Bab,  in  order  that  a  declara- 
tion or  confession  of  faith  might  be  drawn  up 
to  suit  every  nation  in  the  world.  He  thus 
hoped  that  in  time  the  doctrines  promulgated 
by  the  Bab  might  spread  through  the  five 


180  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

continents  and  embrace  the  inhabitants  of 
the  universe  in  a  single  religion.  This 
grandiose  scheme  was  unfolded  in  two  books, 
the  MSS.  of  which  may  be  seen  in  the  British 
Museum.  One  is  the  Kitab-el-Ikan,  or  the 
"  Book  of  Certainty,"  the  other  is  the  Kitab- 
el-Akdas,  the  "  Book  of  Laws."  They  form 
a  sort  of  Moslem  New  Testament,  with  all  the 
defects  that  such  a  work  might  be  expected  to 
contain.  They  were  not,  however,  long  in 
procuring  for  the  author  the  title  which  he 
has  ever  since  borne,  viz.,  Beha-Allah  (the 
Glory  of  God). 

In  1864  the  Sultan  deemed  it  prudent  to 
have  the  Babis  moved  from  Bagdad  to 
Constantinople  and  afterwards  to  Adrianople. 
Being  now  in  Europe  instead  of  Asia,  the 
religion  was  perceptibly  changed  in  the  direc- 
tion desired  by  Beha-Allah,  i.e.,  it  tended  to 
throw  off  its  Asiatic  character.  The  Babis 
were  gradually  becoming  Behais.  But  a  schism 
took  place.  Those  who  viewed  with  some 
suspicion  the  "liberal"  ideas  advocated  by 
Beha-Allah  grouped  themselves  round  his 
deposed  half-brother,  Sobh-I-Ezel,  and  from 
this  moment  the  two  sects  became  deadly 
enemies.  The  distinction,  trivial  and  un- 
important as  it  may  seem  to  us,  was  clearly 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       181 

visible  to  those  concerned.  The  doctrines 
preached  by  the  Bab  tended  to  make  Islam 
"liberal,"  as  the  New  Testament  tended  to 
turn  the  degenerate  Jews  of  the  time  of  Julius 
Caesar  and  Augustus  into  Christians.  The 
Bab's  faith,  however,  remained  strongly  Moslem 
and  Shiite  in  character.  A  Holy  War  against 
unbelievers,  for  example,  was  still  preached  ; 
and  infidels  were  still  infidels  and  subject  to 
the  restrictions  imposed  by  Mohammed  him- 
self. But  Beha-Allah  swept  away  these  and 
other  Oriental  characteristics  and  endeavoured 
to  give  the  religion  a  stamp  of  universality, 
hence  the  division  in  the  ranks. 

When  the  followers  of  the  two  sections 
began  to  disturb  the  peace  of  mind  of  the 
Ottoman  Government,  another  removal  was 
effected.  Sobh-I-Ezel  was  sent  with  his 
followers  to  Famagusta,  in  the  Island  of  Cyprus. 
Beha-Allah  and  his  party  were  taken  to  Saint 
Jean  d'Acre,  where  they  arrived  at  the  end 
of  August  1868.  They  at  once  set  themselves, 
under  the  direction  of  their  energetic  leader, 
to  sink  wells  and  to  cultivate  the  then  barren 
surrounding  country  as  much  as  possible  ;  and 
in  a  short  time  the  colony  was  once  again 
thriving.  They  had  pledged  their  word  not 
to  attempt  to  make  converts  in  the  Sultan's 


i8a  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

dominions  ;  but,  as  they  thought  they  would 
soon  make  their  cause  known  much  further 
afield,  this  did  not  seem  to  distress  them.  It 
is  on  record  that  orthodox  Moslems  of  the 
neighbourhood  did  not  view  them  with  very 
great  favour,  but  that  their  most  bitter  opposi- 
tion came  from  the  most  intolerant  of  all 
people,  the  Christian  foreign  missionaries. 

Beha- Allah  died  on  29th  May  1892,  leaving 
his  power  to  his  son,  Abbas  Effendi ;  but  not 
without  having  seen  his  faith  spread  into  nearly 
every  country  in  the  world.  The  propaganda 
of  the  new  religion  was  peaceful  :  indeed,  the 
post-office  must  have  benefited  to  a  consider- 
able extent,  in  view  of  the  number  of  letters, 
tracts  and  pamphlets  distributed  hither  and 
thither  by  the  little  colony  at  Saint  Jean  d'Acre. 

It  is  as  yet  difficult  to  speak  definitely  on 
the  future  progress  likely  to  be  made  by  the 
faith  :  it  is  of  too  recent  growth  for  us  to  do 
so.  A  small  literature  has  grown  up  around 
it  in  England,  France,  and  Germany  ;  and  it 
would  seem  that,  while  Babism  is  practically 
extinct,  Behaism  has  come  to  stay  for  some 
time  yet. 

The  Behais,  or  neo-Babis,  endeavoured  to 
reconcile  the  different  messages  preached  by 
the  various  prophets  who  have  made  their 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST        183 

appearance  in  the  world.  They  believe  that 
at  the  proper  time  humanity  will  be  combined 
into  one  religious  family,  basing  their  conduct 
on  one  single  law  ;  swords  will  be  transformed 
into  ploughshares,  and  the  secret  truths  written 
in  the  different  religious  books  will  be  revealed 
to  us.  To  them  Buddha,  Moses,  Christ, 
Mohammed,  and  Beha-Allah  are  all  emanations 
from  the  same  spirit,  incarnated  in  successive 
human  forms,  bringing  a  new  message  on  each 
occasion,  but  always  a  message  based  on  the 
same  eternal  principles.  God  is  represented  in 
the  works  of  Beha-Allah  rather  as  an  essence 
or  infinite  Spirit  than  a  Supreme  Being  :  an 
entirely  indefinable  something,  which  we  can 
only  know  by  His  attributes,  as  we  know 
certain  things  by  their  qualities  when  we  cannot 
grasp  their  substance. 

Everything  on  earth,  according  to  the  Behais, 
reflects  the  attributes  of  God,  even  if  only  to  a 
slight  degree,  but  as  the  prophets  are  the  most 
perfect  of  His  creatures,  they  reflect  Him  to  the 
greatest  extent.  It  is  on  certain  principles  such 
as  these,  which,  broadly  speaking,  may  be  con- 
sidered as  common  to  Buddhism,  Confucianism, 
Judaism,  Christianity,  and  Mohammedanism 
that  the  Behais  profess  to  appeal  to  the  whole 
world,  and  not  merely  to  one  particular  country 


184       RELIGIONS  AND  PHILOSOPHIES 

or  continent.  There  are  no  special  rites  ;  the 
religion  must  be  manifested  in  a  person's  daily 
life  and  not  in  any  special  ceremonies.  There 
is  therefore  no  sacerdotal  hierarchy,  for,  since 
all  men  are  equal,  they  may  all  turn  towards 
the  Almighty  and  worship  Him  in  any  manner 
they  may  think  fit.  Since,  too,  all  men  are 
equal,  all  wars  must  in  the  course  of  time  cease  ; 
hence  the  invitation  extended  to  the  different 
nations  to  enter  into  reciprocal  relations.  Any 
difficult  question  which  may  crop  up  is  to  be 
settled  by  arbitration.  Men  and  women  are  to 
be  treated  alike,  and  monogamy  is  to  be  insisted 
upon.  The  charming  manner  of  the  sects  may 
be  imagined  from  the  Persian  saying  :  "  You 
cannot  drink  a  cup  of  tea  with  a  party  of  Behais 
without  wishing  to  join  their  society." 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  Behaism  is  not  so 
much  a  collection  of  dogmas  as  a  rule  of  life,  in 
which  respect  it  may  be  compared  to  Confucian- 
ism ;  but  surely  the  ironical  gods  must  have 
acted  strangely  indeed  when  they  caused  these 
curious  principles  to  develop  as  an  offshoot 
from  Mohammedanism. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

The  Jews — Their  condition  under  the  Egyptians — Moses 
— Monotheism  v.  Polytheism — The  Israelites  leave 
Egypt — Sinai — The  Ten  Commandments — Jewish 
morality — Its  aristocratic  nature — The  Promised 
Land — The  kings — The  Babylonian  Captivity — 
Toleration. 

The  Jewish  intellect  resembles  the  Midas  of  mytho- 
logy :  whatever  it  touches  it  turns  to  gold.1 

THE  recorded  history  of  Egypt  goes  back  to 
about  5000  B.C.,  so  that  when  the  Jews  entered 
the  land  about  1 600  B.C.,  they  were  looked  upon 
as  coarse  aliens  in  a  country  which  had  already 
passed  through  several  millennia  of  culture. 
The  Egyptians  had  built  large  cities  and  erected 
huge  temples,  pyramids  and  tombs.  The 
priests  and  higher  castes  had  become  masters 
of  certain  technical  arts  which  the  requirements 
of  the  country  called  for,  such  as  geometry, 
architecture  and  hydraulics.  Even  before  the 
Jewish  immigration  they  had  grasped  the  details 
of  the  processes  connected  with  embalming,  the 
artistic  modelling  of  gold  and  silver,  and  the 
cutting  of  precious  stones.  The  overflowing 
of  the  Nile  at  regular  intervals  had  led  to  the 

1  Cornill  :  Der  IsraelitiscAe  Prophethmus,  p.  15. 
I85 


186  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

study  of  chronology  and  astronomy,  and  hand- 
writing was  practised.  At  first  the  priests  ap- 
pear to  have  employed  columns  of  hieroglyphics 
to  record  on  metals  the  deaths  of  their  kings 
and  heroes,  and  in  later  times  the  symbols  were 
written  on  papyrus  fibre.  These  educational 
factors  were  eagerly  taken  advantage  of  by  the 
Israelites,  but  one  Jewish  tribe  in  particular 
distinguished  itself  in  the  higher  regions  of 
culture.  This  was  the  tribe  of  Levi,  the 
members  of  which,  by  virtue  of  their  superior 
knowledge  and  perspicacity,  immediately  made 
themselves  masters  of  everything  in  the  way  of 
culture  which  Egypt  had  to  afford.  In  parti- 
cular they  mastered  the  art  of  writing  and  the 
study  of  the  Egyptian  gods,  thus  raising  them- 
selves, with  the  approbation  of  the  other  tribes, 
to  the  position  of  a  sacerdotal  caste. 

The  Egyptians,  however,  resembled  the 
Hindoos  rather  than  the  Semites  by  the  fact 
that  their  religious  system  was  polytheistic. 
Their  climate  led  to  sexual  excesses,  and  this 
was  naturally  seen  in  their  theology.  Their 
gods  were  endowed  with  the  shape  of  the  more 
lascivious  animals,  such  as  the  goat.  The  bull, 
the  dog,  the  cat  and  the  snake  were  also  wor- 
shipped, and  phallicism  would  appear  to  have 
been  rampant.  By  witnessing  the  excesses  of 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       187 

the  Egyptians  the  Israelities  were  influenced 
for  the  worse,  and  though  they  gained  in  culture 
they  lost  in  so  far  as  they  were  induced  to  be- 
come polytheistic  and  to  forget  the  single  God 
of  their  forefathers.  When  a  century  had  passed, 
the  Egyptians,  grudging  the  emigrants  certain 
privileges  denied  to  their  own  people,  declared 
them  to  be  bondsmen,  and  set  them  to  perform 
manual  labour  of  the  coarsest  description.  In 
order  that  their  numbers  might  be  decreased,  a 
command  was  given  that  the  male  children 
should  be  drowned  in  the  Nile  and  the  females 
reserved  for  the  licentiousness  of  the  Egyptians. 
Formerly  free  in  the  Land  of  Goshen,  the  Jews 
were  now  beyond  all  doubt  in  the  House  of 
Bondage.  The  result  was  a  still  further  for- 
getfulness  of  the  God  of  their  ancestors,  and 
a  greater  amount  of  adoration  for  the  gods  of 
their  actual  masters.  They  worshipped  the 
bull  and  the  goat  (cf.  Levit.  xvii.  7),  and  their 
daughters  were  compelled  to  sacrifice  their 
virtue  to  the  libidinous  Egyptians  (cf.  Ezek. 
xxiii.  7,  8).  The  tribes  were  soon  split  into 
numerous  divisions,  and  a  historian  of  the  period 
might  have  been  justified  in  thinking  that  the 
emigrants  in  a  few  centuries  would  either  become 
extinct  or  would  have  been  absorbed  into  the 
lower  classes  of  Egyptians. 


i88  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

The  moulding  of  the  scattered  tribes  into  a 
single  nation,  which  was  to  shake  itself  free 
from  its  oppressor  and  make  its  way  across 
the  Red  Sea  to  a  happier  territory  under  its 
own  leaders  ;  its  century-long  struggle  with 
hostile  peoples,  its  constant  hankering  after 
polytheism  in  spite  of  itself,  its  elevation  to 
the  higher  stage  of  civilisation  :  all  these  things 
were  to  come,  and  were  destined  to  be  due,  as 
all  creative  work  is,  to  the  single  powerful 
mind  of  one  man,  acting  on  the  minds  of  other 
men  for  their  own  benefit,  exploiting,  kneading, 
twisting,  torturing  the  bodies  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen,  in  order  that  they  might,  through 
him,  reach  the  condition  of  existence  which 
they  vaguely  looked  for  but  could  not  attain 
by  themselves  alone. 

Of  MoseSj  one  of  the  most  powerful  person- 
alities in  history,  we  have  unfortunately  but 
few  definite  particulars.  Those  who  have 
looked  at  Michael  Angelo's  statue  of  him  may 
judge  from  it  the  extent  of  his  forcefulness, 
and  may  also  appreciate  the  truth  of  Schopen- 
hauer's saying  that  great  men  tower  up  above 
the  little  men  and  shake  hands  with  each  other 
across  the  centuries.  Moses  belonged  to  the 
highest  Jewish  caste,  that  of  the  Levi,  the  sacer- 
dotal tribe  ;  the  tribe  which  had  longest  pre- 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST        189 

served  the  memory  of  its  monotheism,  and 
was  the  last  to  be  tainted  with  the  corruption 
of  the  Egyptian  polytheism.  Endowed  with 
a  fine  intellect  and  glowing  imagination, 
Moses  sedulously  cultivated  his  natural  gifts 
by  such  learning  as  Egypt  could  afford.  As 
the  actual  condition  of  Israel  became  clear  to 
him,  he  turned  away  in  horror  from  the  vices 
and  idolatry  of  the  Egyptians,  and  gave 
himself  up  to  meditation  as  to  how  he  could 
best  deliver  his  countrymen  from  the  yoke 
which  bound  them  down.  One  day  when  he 
saw  an  Egyptian  unjustly  punishing  a  Jew, 
he  slew  the  offender,  overcome  by  passion  and 
wrath.  Fearing  to  be  discovered,  he  fled  into 
the  desert  and  stopped  at  the  oasis  near  Mount 
Sinai,  dwelling  for  a  time  among  the  Kenites, 
a  branch  of  the  Midianite  tribe.  Here  he 
tended  the  herds  of  his  father-in-law  at  a  spot 
between  the  Red  Sea  and  the  mountains.  Influ- 
enced, like  Mohammed  later  on,  by  his  deserted 
surroundings,  which  accentuated  and  further 
heightened  his  imagination,  the  prophetic  spirit 
of  the  man  was  gradually  developed.  "  If 
ever  the  soul  of  a  mortal  was  endowed  with 
human  prophetic  foresight,"  writes  Graetz, 
"this  was  the  case  with  the  pure  inspiration 
and  sublime  soul  of  Moses."  In  the  desert  of 


190  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

Sinai,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Horeb,  where  the 
flocks  of  his  father-in-law  were  grazing,  Moses 
received  his  first  divine  revelation — in  other 
words,  long  meditation  on  a  single  problem 
had  blossomed  into  religious  and  prophetic 
ecstasy,  the  "  epilepsy "  and  "  insanity  "  of 
Mohammed.  Aaron,  his  brother,  had  likewise 
received  inspiration  to  go  to  Mount  Horeb, 
there  to  prepare  with  Moses  for  the  task  of 
setting  free  the  Hebrews,  doubtless  an  early 
instance  of  telepathy.  Both  men  relied  on  the 
support  of  God  to  proclaim  their  message  to  the 
tribesmen.  The  elders  and  those  of  the  higher 
class  eagerly  supported  Moses  ;  but  the  masses, 
actuated  by  their  "reason,"  were  distrustful,  and 
pointed  out  quite  naturally  that  they  might  as 
well  continue  to  be  the  slaves  of  the  Egyptians 
as  die  in  the  desert  whither  Moses  proposed 
to  lead  them.  Appearing  before  the  Egyptian 
king,  the  two  leaders  demanded  the  release  of 
the  Israelites  in  the  name  of  Jehovah.  The 
sovereign,  however,  was  disinclined  to  liberate 
several  hundred  thousand  slaves,  who  were  so 
useful  to  his  own  subjects ;  and,  accordingly, 
in  order  to  put  the  wish  for  freedom  out  of 
their  heads,  he  had  their  hours  of  labour 
doubled.  A  chorus  of  reproaches  was  then 
directed  against  Moses  as  the  cause  of  this 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       191 

unpleasantness ;  but  about  this  time  Egypt  was 
suddenly  afflicted  by  plagues.  Apparently,  in 
so  far  as  we  may  judge  from  the  particulars 
which  have  come  down  to  us,  the  disease  was 
leprosy,  and  Pharaoh  was  induced  to  believe 
that  it  was  due  to  the  anger  of  the  strange 
God  of  the  Jews.  Successive  outbreaks  of  the 
disease  led  the  king  to  urge  the  departure  of 
the  Israelites,  and  on  the  i5th  of  Nizan  (March) 
the  slaves  were  permitted  to  set  out. 

Of  this  event  several  conflicting  statements 
have  come  down  to  us.  According  to  the 
Egyptian  accounts,  the  Israelites  were  actually 
chased  from  Egypt,  owing  to  the  frequent  out- 
breaks of  leprosy,  which  were  said  to  have 
occurred  among  them,  and  by  which  the  Egyp- 
tians were  contaminated.  Flavius  Josephus  has 
endeavoured  to  refute  the  Egyptian  version  of 
the  story,  as  set  forth  by  Manethon,  Cherimon, 
and  Lysimachus,  but  without  much  success; 
and  it  is  further  looked  upon  as  being  histori- 
cally accurate  by  Diodorus  (xxxiv.),  Tacitus 
(Hist.,  xv.  3-4),  Justin  (Hist.  Phil.,  xxxi.  2) 
and  Voltaire.  Readers  of  the  Old  Testament 
will  be  familiar  with  the  many  laws  introduced 
to  combat  leprosy  ;  for  example  Levit.  x.,  xiii. 
and  xiv.  ;  Num.,  v.  2-3,  and  Deut.  xxiv.  8. 
Again,  as  we  find  similar  severe  laws  in 


THE  RELIGIONS  AND 


the  Koran,  which  is  of  course,  also  the  work 
of  a  Semitic  race,  and  very  little  mention  of 
leprosy  in  the  books  of  the  other  religions  of 
antiquity,  it  may  be  justifiable  to  assume  that 
leprosy  was  much  more  common  among  the 
Semites,  and  that  therefore  there  is  some  ground 
for  believing  that  the  departure  of  the  Hebrews 
from  Egypt  was  regarded  as  not  altogether  an  un- 
mixed blessing.  The  Egyptians,  who  are  stated 
to  have  killed  nearly  one  hundred  thousand  of 
their  shepherds  for  spreading  the  dread  disease, 
may  not  have  pursued  the  Jews  for  the  purpose 
of  bringing  them  back  as  slaves,  but  rather  in 
order  to  kill  them  to  a  man,  and  thus  make 
sure  of  stamping  out  the  disease  for  ever. 

Once  fairly  on  their  way,  the  Jews  were 
joined  by  other  strange  tribes  of  Semites,  who 
had  likewise  become  tired  of  Egyptian  rule, 
and  it  was  out  of  this  mixed  crew,  partly  savage 
and  partly  civilised,  that  Moses  had  to  form  a 
nation — seeking  a  home  for  them,  drawing  up 
a  code  of  laws,  and,  in  short,  transforming 
confusion  and  anarchy  into  order  and  discipline. 
The  only  helpers  he  could  count  upon  were  the 
priests  of  the  Levite  tribe,  for  the  men  who 
were  following  him  were  too  much  under  the 
influence  of  their  slave  mentality  to  do  any- 
thing for  themselves.  At  the  least  sign  of 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       193 

danger  they  would  give  way  to  terror  and 
despondency ;  they  would  enquire  with  the 
sarcastic  wit  of  the  demagogue  whether  there 
were  not  graves  enough  in  Egypt  that  they 
should  be  brought  into  the  desert  to  die,  and 
they  raised  the  usual  objections  with  which  the 
herd  always  strives,  often  deliberately,  more 
often  unconsciously,  to  confound  the  superior 
intellect  and  drag  it  down  to  its  own  level. 

The  first  destination  of  the  wanderers  was 
Mount  Sinai,  where  they  were  to  receive  laws 
and  precepts  from  the  Almighty  through 
Moses.1  On  their  way,  however,  they  were 
followed  by  Pharaoh,  who  had  repented  of 
his  unwisdom  in  letting  so  many  slaves  leave 
the  country.  When  the  huge  Egyptian  host 
was  seen  approaching,  the  fugitives  gave  utter- 
ance to  loud  cries  of  despair,  while  the  mind 
of  their  leader  rather  sought  a  means  of  escape. 
The  party  had  now  reached  the  shores  of  the 
Red  Sea,  and  a  hurricane  from  the  north-east 
had  driven  the  water  to  the  south  during  the 
night,  leaving  part  of  the  bed  dry.  Moses 
therefore  urged  his  terrified  followers  across 
the  bed  of  the  sea,  and  a  safe  passage  was  made 
to  the  other  side.  The  Egyptians  soon  hurried 

1  As  Graetz  points  out,  Sinai  was  situated  near  the  Land  of  Edom, 
on  the  borders  of  the  Desert  of  Paran,  and  not  in  the  so-called  Sinaitic 
Peninsula. 
N 


194  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 


up  to  the  spot  to  wade  after  them  ;  but  the 
tempest  had  ceased,  the  waves  rolled  back,  and 
most  of  Pharaoh's  troops  were  engulfed.  This 
entirely  natural  phenomenon  is  one  of  the 
most  interesting  coincidences  on  record,  and 
it  is  hardly  surprising  that  the  old  Jewish 
poets  and  bards  should  have  given  to  it  a 
supernatural  interpretation,  and  ascribed  the 
safety  of  the  Israelites  and  the  destruction  of 
their  pursuers  to  the  alternate  mercy  and 
vengeance  of  Jehovah.  The  event,  at  any 
rate,  confirmed  the  trust  of  the  Jews  in  their 
leader,  Moses  ;  but  it  did  not  prevent  them 
from  falling  into  despondency,  as  usual,  at 
the  sight  of  every  new  difficulty,  a  state  of 
mind  which  did  not  leave  them  for  a  long 
time  afterwards. 

On  their  further  journey  towards  the  moun- 
tain ranges  of  Sinai  the  wanderers  seemed  to 
be  threatened  with  famine  ;  but  the  place  of 
their  ordinary  food  was  taken  by  manna,  a  sub- 
stance which  was  found  in  such  large  quantities 
every  morning  that  the  Jews  naturally  came 
to  look  upon  its  presence  as  a  miracle.  Manna 
is  the  name  given  to  the  honey-like  substance 
which  was  exuded  from  the  tamarisk  trees  so 
common  in  that  district.  The  little  drops 
begin  to  form  early  in  the  morning,  and  attain 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       195 

the  size  of  peas  before  the  sun's  rays  cause 
them  to  melt  away. 

It  was  in  the  third  month  of  the  exodus 
from  Egypt  that  Moses  led  his  party  to  the 
highest  of  the  mountain  ranges  and  prepared 
them,  by  working  upon  their  sense  of  terror 
and  superstition,  for  the  strange  event  which 
was  to  take  place  in  three  days.  Doubtless 
the  early  training  which  the  prophet  had 
received  among  the  Egyptians  enabled  him 
to  foretell  what  natural  phenomena  were  likely 
to  occur.  On  the  third  day,  it  is  recorded, 
a  heavy  cloud  covered  the  mountain-top ; 
lightning  enveloped  the  ridge  in  fire,  and 
thunder  echoed  and  re-echoed  in  the  valleys 
below.  But  this  was  little  as  compared  with 
the  awful  voice  of  God,  conveying  to  Moses 
the  Ten  Commandments  which  He  expected 
His  chosen  people  to  follow.  A  clear  rule 
of  life  was  laid  down  ;  and  the  trembling 
Israelites,  who  had  been  led  to  the  top  of 
the  mountain  as  escaped  bondsmen,  descended 
to  their  tents  as  God's  righteous  people 
(Jeshurun).  The  Israelites  were  constituted  the 
teachers  of  the  human  race,  and  through  them 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth  were  to  be  blessed. 
Never  before  in  the  history  of  the  world 
had  a  few  insignificant  tribes  been  entrusted 


196  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

with  such  a  mighty  task  ;  seldom  indeed  has 
any  race  influenced  the  universe  so  much. 
Whether  we  take  the  Christian  view,  bearing  the 
later  and  somewhat  degenerate  Jewish  morality 
in  mind,  and  say  that  this  influence  has  been 
good,  or  judge  the  matter  from  the  Nietzschian 
standpoint  and  note  the  drawbacks,  both 
Christians  and  anti-Christians  will  agree  in 
saying  that  no  race  under  the  sun  has  ever 
accomplished  more.  There  is  little  need  to 
seek  to  prove  the  miracles  recorded  in  the 
Old  Testament  when  we  recollect  this  fact, 
for  surely  it  is  a  miracle  in  itself ;  and  another 
is  the  survival  of  the  Jews  for  the  last  two 
thousand  years.  Without  a  country,  weighed 
down  by  persecution,  oppression,  prejudice, 
and  unjust  laws,  they  have  yet  been  able  to 
maintain  their  existence  as  an  aristocratic  race 
in  the  midst  of  the  most  profound  hostility 
which  has  ever  been  vented  on  any  sect.  The 
early  Christians,  persecuted  by  the  Romans 
for  a  few  short  years,  could  find  refuge 
among  numerous  sympathisers  ;  the  persecuted 
Huguenots  could  fly  to  England,  the  persecuted 
Puritans  could  fly  to  America,  the  persecuted 
Irish  Catholics  could  fly  to  France ;  but  no 
haven  was  ever  open  to  the  persecuted  Jews  ; 
for  every  man's  hand  was  against  them.  Yet 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       197 

that,  in  spite  of  all  this,  the  race  has  been 
able  to  survive  without  being  afflicted  by  that 
intellectual  degradation  which  always  accom- 
panies a  mere  "  survival "  and  nothing  more, 
that  this  race  has,  in  spite  of  persecution  and 
moral  boycotting,  produced  a  series  of  brilliant 
authors,  poets,  lawyers,  artists,  and  musicians, 
is  surely  entitled  to  be  ranked  as  another 
wonder  of  the  world,  as  worthy  of  admiration 
as  the  hanging  gardens  of  Babylon  or  the 
Temple  of  Diana  at  Ephesus. 

The  aristocratic  nature  of  the  Jewish  Com- 
mandments is  shown  in  the  fact  that  they  were 
not  meant  for  all  men,  but  only  for  a  select 
number.  They  were  interpreted  in  the  light 
of  God's  promise  to  Abraham  to  give  him  a 
posterity  : 

"  In  blessing  I  will  bless  thee,  and  in 
multiplying  I  will  multiply  thy  seed  as  the 
stars  of  the  heavens  and  as  the  sand  which 
is  upon  the  sea-shore," l  and  also  to  con- 
sider the  tribe  of  Abraham  as  His  only 
children,  and  to  bind  all  other  nations  in 
slavery,  so  that  Israel  should  reign  supreme 
over  the  world. 

It  was  thus  the  task  of  the  Hebrews  to 
exterminate  without  pity  all  other  peoples, 

1  Genesis  xxii.  17. 


THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

to  seize  their  lands  and  possessions,  and  to 
practise  usury  upon  them  (cf.  Deut.  vii.  and 
xiv.).  Other  similar  precepts  are  to  be  found 
in  the  Talmud,  that  stupendous  book  of  the 
Jewish  law  and  custom  complied  by  the  great 
Rabbana  ("Our  Teacher")  Ashi,  between  380 
and  420  A.D. :  e.g.,  "As  man  is  superior  to 
the  other  animals  so  are  the  Jews  superior 
to  all  other  men/' — "  Those  who  are  not  Jews 
are  dogs  and  asses."  From  some  of  the 
writings  of  the  great  teacher  Maimonides, 
universally  acknowledged  by  Jews  all  the 
world  over  as  their  second  Moses  in  point 
of  sagacity,  penetration  and  wisdom,  many 
similar  maxims  could  be  gathered,  all  tending 
to  uphold  Nietzsche's  contention  that  there 
is  one  morality  for  the  masters  and  another 
for  the  slaves ;  and  the  Jews  have  always, 
and  with  reason,  although  for  the  most  part 
secretly,  regarded  themselves  as  the  masters 
and  aristocrats  of  the  world. 

The  history  of  the  Chosen  People  from 
leaving  Sinai  is  well  known  to  every  English- 
man through  the  medium  of  the  Old  Testament, 
a  narrative  which,  from  the  historical  and  legal 
point  of  view  is  substantially  accurate,  although 
critics  have  long  quarrelled,  and  will  doubtless 
continue  to  quarrel,  as  to  the  inspiration,  non- 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST      199 

inspiration  and  dates  of  composition  of  the 
particular  books. 

Under  Joshua,  the  successor  of  Moses,  the 
Jews  reached  the  "Promised  Land,"  the 
splendid  pastoral  region  to  the  east  of  the 
Jordan,  the  natives  either  being  slaughtered 
wholesale  or  forced  to  fly  from  the  district. 
The  Mosaic  Law  fell  into  neglect  after  the 
death  of  Joshua  (about  1255  B.C.),  and  the 
Jews  became  hard  pressed  by  various  tribes, 
such  as  the  Moabites,  the  Ammonites,  the 
Amalekites,  and  the  Philistines.  The  hour 
brought  forth  the  men,  and  the  efforts  of 
Gideon,  Jephthah,  Samson,  and  Samuel  helped 
in  a  great  measure  to  free  the  harassed  people 
from  their  oppressors. 

About  noo  B.C.  the  Jews  had  practically 
reached  the  zenith  of  their  prosperity  and 
power,  and  they  insisted  upon  "being  like 
other  nations"  (i  Sam.  viii.  5),  and  having  a 
king.  The  first  to  exercise  the  regal  authority 
was  Saul,  the  Benjamite,  who  reigned  from 
1067  to  1055  B.C.,  followed  by  his  renowned 
son-in-law,  David,  who  held  the  throne  (1055- 
1015  B.C.)  during  what  was  probably  the  most 
glorious  period  in  the  history  of  Israel.  The 
reign  of  his  equally  famous  son,  Solomon, 
witnessed  the  complete  subjugation  of  the 


200  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

aboriginal  inhabitants  of  Canaan,  the  boundaries 
of  the  kingdom  being  extended  as  far  as  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Red  Sea.  Under  Solomon's 
rule  Jerusalem  was  captured  and  made  the 
capital,  the  priesthood  was  re-organised  on  a 
more  magnificent  scale  than  before,  while 
schools  of  poetry,  architecture,  and  prophecy 
were  started  and  flourished. 

A  succession  of  monarchs  followed,  but  not 
even  regal  ordinances  and  the  murmurs  of  the 
prophets  could  prevent  the  introduction  of 
idolatrous  practices.  At  last  the  power  of 
the  Hebrews  was  successfully  assailed  by  the 
Egyptians,  the  Assyrians,  and  the  Babylonians  ; 
and  Nebuchadnezzar  took  Jerusalem  by  storm 
in  558  B.C.,  put  out  the  eyes  of  King  Zedekiah, 
and  carried  most  of  the  inhabitants  prisoners 
to  Babylon.  A  large  number  of  Israelites  had 
previously  been  captured  by  the  Babylonians 
in  722  B.C.,  and  the  ultimate  fate  of  these  early 
prisoners  has  long  been  a  matter  of  vague 
conjecture.  When  Cyrus  overthrew  the 
Babylonian  empire  in  538  B.C.,  half  a  century 
after  the  fall  of  Jerusalem,  he  gave  the  Jews 
permission  to  return  to  their  own  country,  but 
only  some  forty  thousand  took  advantage  of 
the  conqueror's  clemency.  This  would  seem 
to  show  that  the  Jews  were  fairly  well  treated 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       201 

during  their  period  of  captivity — indeed,  the 
particulars  which  have  come  down  to  us  bear 
testimony  to  this.  Five  and  a  half  centuries 
before  the  beginning  of  our  era  Babylon  had 
attained  to  an  exceedingly  high  stage  of  civilisa- 
tion, and  the  Jews  apparently  benefited  by  it 
as  much  as  they  had  done  centuries  before 
when  in  Egypt.  In  fact,  Babylon  up  to  the 
year  1000  A.D.,  has  often  been  referred  to  as 
"the  Second  Land  of  Israel."  Not  only 
were  the  services  in  the  synagogues  consider- 
ably influenced  by  what  was  observed  in  the 
Babylonian  temples,  but  the  early  division  of 
the  Talmud  also  began  to  take  shape — the 
"oral  law"  which,  as  already  stated,  was 
compiled  and  edited  by  the  Rabbana  Ashi 
between  380  and  480  A.D. 

Under  the  rule  of  Darius  and  Xerxes  the 
Jews  would  appear  to  have  prospered,  and  even 
Alexander  the  Great,  when  on  his  way  to 
conquer  the  East,  left  the  inhabitants  of 
Jerusalem  unmolested.  After  him  came 
Ptolemy  Soter,  one  of  his  generals,  who  had 
become  King  of  Egypt.  He  invaded  Syria, 
captured  Jerusalem  in  301  B.C.,  and  carried 
off  several  thousands  of  the  inhabitants,  whom 
he  compelled  to  settle  at  Alexandria.  This 
was  also  to  a  great  extent  a  fortunate  matter 


202  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

for  the  Jews,  for  they  enjoyed  equal  rights 
with  their  Greek  and  Egyptian  fellow-subjects, 
and  came  under  the  influence  of  Hellenistic 
thought.  The  first  thing  to  which  the  Jews 
devoted  themselves  here  resulted  in  the  Greek 
translation  of  the  Bible,  known  as  the  Septuagint, 
not  to  speak  of  a  huge  mass  of  apocryphal 
literature  and  a  composite  philosophy,  half 
Greek,  half  Jewish,  which  was  brought  about 
by  the  union  of  Hellenism  and  Orientalism. 

After  this  the  discussion  of  the  Jewish  race 
belongs  to  the  historian  rather  than  to  the 
theologian.  The  melancholy  events  of  the 
Roman  conquest,  which  was  terminated  by 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus  in 
70  A.D.,  and  the  demolition  of  the  Temple, 
amid  horrible  scenes  of  carnage,  are  but  too 
well  known.  The  Jews,  however,  seem  to 
have  flourished  fairly  well  under  the  late 
emperors  until  Christianity  became  the  state 
religion  under  Constantine  the  Great,  after 
which  the  era  of  persecution  began.  Even 
making  all  allowances  for  the  hatred  which 
may  be  engendered  by  religious  differences,  it 
would  be  difficult  for  the  historian,  without 
the  aid  of  the  psychologist,  to  explain  the 
persecutions,  tortures  and  outrages  to  which 
the  Jews  had  to  submit  for  many  centuries  in 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       203 

Christian  lands.  The  truth  is  that  there  can 
be  no  toleration  without  contempt.  Tolera- 
tion, in  a  word,  springs  from  contempt.  In 
Mohammedan  countries  Christians  and  Jews 
are  seldom  persecuted  or  attacked  except  for 
purely  political  reasons  ;  very  rarely  for  merely 
theological  reasons.  In  other  words,  the  Moslem 
feels  he  is  so  strong  in  character  that  he  can 
afford  to  despise  the  members  of  other  creeds 
which  may  be  settled  near  him.  The  Hindoo 
despises  the  Englishman  in  India  for  the  same 
reason — a  fact  which,  by  the  way,  has  already 
been  noted  by  Mr  Meredith  Townsend.  The 
physically  or  spiritually  weak,  however,  invari- 
ably envy  the  stronger,  hence  we  find  that  in 
Russia  the  millions  of  Christians  belonging  to 
the  Orthodox  Church  cannot  afford  to  tolerate 
the  proportionately  small  number  of  Jews 
settled  among  them — merely  because  the  Jews 
belong  to  a  stronger  race,  and  the  Christians 
cannot  look  upon  them  with  contempt,  which 
is  necessary  for  toleration,  but  only  with  envy, 
which  invariably  gives  rise  to  intolerance.  I 
am  aware  that  this  opinion  may  be  contested  by 
a  few  of  the  obsolete  schools  of  thought  to  be 
found  in  England,  but  as  it  has  the  support  of 
practically  all  Continental  psychologists  and  phi- 
losophers, I  feel  on  safe  ground  in  expressing  it. 


CHAPTER  IX 

Indian  philosophy — The  Jains — China — Confucius,  his 
system  of  morals — Lao-Tze — Taoism — Mencius — 
Lack  of  poetry  in  China — Japan,  its  early  religious 
system  —  Shintoism  —  Buddhism  —  Bushido  —  The 
Samurai. 

WHEREVER  we  find  a  religious  system  well 
developed  and  capable  of  influencing  almost 
every  branch  of  even  the  everyday  life  of  a 
nation,  we  find,  as  a  rule,  that  there  is  com- 
paratively little  room  or  necessity  for  a  supple- 
mentary system  of  philosophy.  Thus,  the 
Koran,  for  example,  deals  with  so  many 
minute  points  that  we  find  very  few  Moslem 
philosophers  setting  up  a  different  system  of 
thought.  In  the  case  of  India,  where  the 
wants  of  the  people  of  almost  every  class  are 
so  few,  and  where  Nature  has  for  centuries 
supplied  them  so  well,  the  higher  castes  have 
had  little  to  do  but  to  give  themselves  up  for 
ages  almost  entirely  to  abstruse  metaphysical 
meditation.  As  a  result  we  find  throughout 
India  certain  views  and  tenets  which,  on  a 
superficial  examination,  almost  appear  to  be 

philosophical  systems.     When  examined  more 

204 


RELIGIONS  AND  PHILOSOPHIES     205 

closely,  however,  these  systems  almost  always 
resolve  themselves  into  commentaries  on  the 
Vedas  or  Buddhistic  writings.  The  two 
principal  systems  of  Indian  philosophy  are  the 
Vedanta  and  the  Sankhya.  It  is  true  that  the 
Orthodox  Hindoos  recognised  six  philosophical 
systems  (Darshana),  but  these  six  systems  fall 
into  three  pairs  so  closely  connected  with  one 
another  that  each  pair  may  be  said  to  form  a 
common  school  of  philosophy.  These  are  (i) 
Mimamsa  and  Vedanta,  (2)  Sankhya  and  Yoga, 
and  (3)  Nyaya  and  Vaiseshika.  Mimamsa, 
which  is  more  properly  known  as  Purva- 
Mimamsa,  that  is,  preliminary  enquiry,  is  an 
attempt  at  a  systematic  exposition  of  the 
principles  of  the  interpretation  of  scripture, 
that  is,  of  the  Vedas  ;  or,  to  put  its  object  in 
one  word,  exegesis.  Its  aim  is  to  uphold  the 
authority  of  the  Vedas  and  to  urge  upon  all 
Hindoos  the  necessity  of  performing  the  duties 
enjoined  in  them.  Prof.  Max  Miiller  was 
apparently  in  some  doubt  as  to  whether  the 
Mimamsa  was  entitled  to  be  reckoned  as  a 
system  of  philosophy  at  all.  The  reputed 
founder  of  the  school  was  a  seer  named 
Jaimini,  who  may  possibly  have  flourished 
about  the  second  or  third  century  A.D.  He 
might  be  said  to  hold  the  same  position  in 


206  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

India    as   Thomas    Aquinas   does    among   the 
Schoolmen. 

Vedanta,  the  second  system,  means  literally 
"  end  of  the  Veda/'  while  it  is  also  known 
as  Uttara-Mimamsa,  that  is,  "later  enquiry." 
Max  Mtiller,  in  his  Three  Lectures  on  the 
Vedanta,  has  quoted  a  remark  from  a  Hindoo 
writer  which  serves  to  sum  up  the  science  of 
this  system.  u  Brahman  is  true,  the  world 
is  false,  the  soul  is  Brahman  and  nothing  else. 
There  is  nothing  worth  gaining,  there  is 
nothing  worth  enjoying,  there  is  nothing  worth 
knowing  but  Brahman  alone,  for  he  who  knows 
Brahman  is  Brahman.'*  In  other  words,  ac- 
cording to  this  system,  God,  that  is,  Brahman, 
is  the  efficient  and  material  cause  of  the  world. 
He  is  both  Creator  and  end.  All  things 
spring  from  him  and  in  the  course  of  time  are 
again  resolved  into  him.  The  soul  of  the 
individual  is  of  his  essence,  but  it,  too,  returns 
to  him.  The  individual  has  no  will  of  his 
own,  his  actions  being  predestined  by  Brahma, 
just  as  in  the  case  of  Bhagavad-Gita  they  are 
predestined  by  Krishna.  About  the  eighth  or 
ninth  century  of  our  era,  the  school  of  Vedantists 
appears  to  have  broken  up  into  two  sects,  the 
best  known  being  that  represented  by  a  famous 
Indian  theologian,  Sankara-Acharya.  While 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       207 

according  to  one  Indian  tradition  he  was  born 
about  200  B.C.,  he  is  assigned  by  the  best 
authorities  to  the  ninth  century  A.D.  He  was 
principally  known  for  his  commentary  on  the 
Vedanta-Sutras,  and  also  for  his  interpretation 
of  the  Bhagavad-Gita.  Although  he  died  at 
the  early  age  of  thirty-one  or  thirty-two,  his 
extraordinary  learning  gained  for  him  a  great 
reputation,  and  he  was  for  many  years  looked 
upon  as  the  incarnation  of  the  god  Siva.  The 
other  sect  of  Vedantists  identifies  the  supreme 
spirit  with  Vishnu  rather  than  with  Siva. 

The  third  or  Sankhya  system  is  ascribed 
to  Kapila,  and  represents  the  materialistic 
school  of  Indian  philosophy.  The  Sankhyaists 
ascribe  the  origin  of  the  world  to  a  material 
First  Cause,  devoid  of  all  intelligence,  out  of 
which  the  universe  has  been  developed  by  a 
process  of  unconscious  evolution.  From  this 
it  will  be  seen  that  the  third  system  of  Indian 
philosophy  has  much  in  common  with  the  older 
school  of  English  evolutionists. 

The  fourth  or  Yoga  system  generally  accepts 
the  speculations  of  the  Sankhyaists,  adding 
a  25th  principle  to  the  24th  laid  down  by 
their  immediate  predecessors,  viz.,  Nirguna 
Purrusha,  that  is  cf  Self  without  attributes." 
This  assumes  evolution  founded  upon  some 


208  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

theistic  principle,  on  which  account  the  Yoga 
system  is  sometimes  known  as  the  theistic  or 
Sesvara  Sankhya.  A  characteristic  feature  of 
the  Yogas  is  their  exceedingly  complicated 
system  of  ascetic  practices  in  order  that  the 
senses  and  passions  may  undergo  a  process  of 
mortification  in  such  a  way  that  a  union  may 
be  formed  with  the  supreme  spirit  during  one's 
lifetime. 

The  remaining  two  systems,  the  Nyaya  and 
Vaiseshika,  differ  from  one  another  in  a  few 
points  of  little  interest,  but  are  usually  con- 
sidered as  two  branches  of  a  single  system 
of  philosophy,  supplementary  to  one  another 
and  hence  generally  studied  together.  Nyaya, 
which  means  literally,  method  or  rule,  is 
ascribed  to  one  Gotama  or  Akshapada.  It  is 
principally  remarkable  for  its  complicated 
system  of  dialectics,  which  has  gained  for  it 
the  designation  of  the  Hindoo  science  of  logic. 
The  Vaiseskiha  derives  its  name  from  its 
main  premiss,  that  is,  each  separate  atom 
(Visesha)  is  possessed  of  its  own  individuality, 
and  that  the  cosmos  is  formed  from  an  ag- 
glomeration of  such  atoms.  These  latter  two 
philosophical  systems  are  generally  thought  to 
have  arisen  about  the  fourth  or  fifth  century  of 
our  era,  and  if  we  had  a  few  clear  particulars 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       209 

regarding  the  Vaiseshika  system  it  would  be 
interesting  to  compare  it  with  the  atomic 
theory  set  forth  by  Lucretius. 

Among  the  numerous  other  systems  and 
sub-systems  of  Indian  philosophies,  only  one 
calls  for  any  special  notice,  viz.,  that  of  the 
Charvakas  or  Lokayatikas,  both  of  which 
names  correspond  approximately  to  materialists. 
Followers  of  this  school  admit  perception  alone 
as  a  source  of  knowledge,  deny  a  supreme 
spirit  or  a  soul  apart  from  the  body,  and  hold 
that  man's  only  aim  in  life  should  be  the  enjoy- 
ment derived  from  sensuality. 

There  is  another  heterodox  sect  of  Hindoos 
which  calls  for  some  passing  mention.  This 
is  the  Jains,  who,  although  generally  scattered 
throughout  the  Peninsula,  are  found  chiefly 
in  Upper  India.  They  are  comparatively  few 
in  number,  but  wealthy  and  influential.  Like 
the  Buddhists,  they  deny  the  divine  source 
of  the  Veda  and  repudiate  its  authority.  They 
agree  with  the  Brahmanical  Hindoos,  however, 
in  recognising  the  caste  system  and  also  some 
of  the  lesser  Hindoo  deities,  but  they  differ 
from  the  Brahmans  in  certain  sacrifices  which 
involve  the  destruction  of  animal  life.  It  is 
their  belief  that  not  only  men  have  souls  but 
animals  and  plants  as  well,  and  they  exhibit 
o 


210  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

their  kindness  for  the  dumb  creation  so  far 
as  to  provide  hospitals  for  sick  animals.  The 
more  strict  members  of  the  sect,  indeed,  refuse 
to  drink  water  until  it  has  been  strained,  in  case 
they  should  unwittingly  swallow  some  small 
insect  with  it.  There  are  two  classes  of  Jains, 
as  of  Buddhists  :  Firstly,  the  Sravakas,  who 
are  engaged  in  ordinary  employment,  and 
secondly,  the  Yatis,  or  monks.  The  latter 
chiefly  reside  in  the  Jain  temples,  of  which 
there  are  large  numbers,  liberally  decorated  and 
provided  with  numerous  images.  Like  the 
Buddhists,  too,  the  Jains  believe  in  a  Nirvana, 
where  the  soul  will  be  freed  from  the  sorrows 
of  transmigration.  It  seems  almost  impossible 
now  to  trace  the  origin  of  this  sect.  Its 
founder  is  reputed  to  be  one  Mahavira,  of 
noble  birth,  who  is  said  to  have  lived  about  the 
fifth  or  sixth  century  B.C.,  which  would  almost 
make  him  a  contemporary  of  Buddha.  Other 
authorities,  however,  declare  that  the  sect  did  not 
come  into  existence  until  about  a  century  after 
Buddha's  death,  forming  their  philosophical  and 
religious  systems  partly  out  of  the  Buddhistic 
and  partly  out  of  Brahmanical  tenets. 

Very  obscure  indeed  is  the  early  history  of 
China.     The  people  now  known  as  the  Chinese 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       211 

seem  to  have  invaded  the  country  not  later 
than  6000  B.C.,  and  probably  centuries  earlier. 
Following  the  course  of  the  Hoang-Ho  River 
they  gradually  settled  down  as  agriculturists, 
after  having,  like  the  Aryans  in  India,  almost 
annihilated  the  native  population.  The  first 
king  of  whom  we  have  any  connected  historical 
account  is  Yao,  who  "flourished  "  about  2500 
B.C.  He  and  his  successor  Shun  were  good  men 
— goody-goody  perhaps  ;  and  it  would  appear 
that  they  set  an  example  of  moral  perfection 
which  all  succeeding  rulers  who  felt  inclined 
endeavoured  to  emulate.  But  the  dynasty  died 
out  after  many  years,  and  the  sovereigns  of 
later  times  appear,  to  say  the  least,  to  have 
been  of  a  much  more  worldly  disposition. 
About  1000  B.C.  a  certain  emperor  named 
Wu  Wang  divided  his  kingdom  into  seventy- 
two  feudal  states,  but  the  jealousy  between  the 
different  princes  soon  led  to  internecine  warfare. 
The  Tartars  also  began  to  make  themselves 
troublesome,  and  it  was  in  the  midst  of  internal 
confusion  and  the  sudden  descents  of  daring 
and  skilful  foes  that  Confucius  was  born. 

The  date  usually  given  for  his  birth  is  551 
B.C.,  a  year  when  Buddha  was  in  the  prime  of 
life,  fifty  years  before  Heraclitus  propounded 
his  theory  of  the  flux,  and  more  than  a  century 


212  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

before  the  birth  of  Plato.  The  philosopher's 
clan  name  was  Kung,  and  he  was  known  to  his 
fellow-countrymen  as  Kung-fu-tze,  that  is, 
Kung  the  Philosopher,  Confucius  being  merely 
the  Latinised  form  of  the  Chinese  word.  The 
Kung  family  had  removed  to  the  territory  of 
the  Lu,  in  the  present  province  of  Shantung, 
and  it  was  here,  in  the  village  of  Chueh,  that 
the  philosopher  was  born. 

The  death  of  his  father  left  Confucius  and 
his  mother  in  somewhat  straitened  circum- 
stances, but  we  know  that  the  sage  married  at 
the  age  of  nineteen.  About  this  period  of  his 
life  he  held  some  minor  municipal  appointments. 
When  he  was  about  twenty-two  or  twenty-three 
years  old  he  began  his  career  as  a  teacher.  He 
left  his  native  place  for  a  time  and  is  said  to 
have  met  the  other  famous  Chinese  philosopher, 
Lao-Tze,  at  Loh,  the  capital  of  the  state.  In 
510  B.C.  we  find  Confucius  appointed  to  the 
governorship  of  Chung-tu,  where  his  teachings 
and  exemplary  conduct  led  to  a  great  reforma- 
tion in  the  habits  and  manners  of  the  people. 
The  successful  progress  of  the  state  under  the 
guidance  of  Confucius,  however,  led  to  jealousy 
on  the  part  of  the  neighbouring  rulers,  and  the 
sovereign  Duke  of  Chung-tu  received  from 
the  Marquis  of  Chi  a  present  of  handsome 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       213 

courtesans,  fine  horses,  etc.  The  gift  had  the 
effect  wished  for,  and  the  charm  of  the  women 
drew  the  weak-minded  duke's  attention  away 
from  the  philosopher  and  his  reforms. 

As  a  result,  Confucius  made  up  his  mind  to 
travel,  and  departed  from  Lu  in  497  B.C. 
Accompanied  by  numerous  disciples — he  is  said 
to  have  had  about  three  thousand  in  all  during 
his  life — he  visited  many  states,  and  his  fame 
as  a  philosopher  and  teacher  usually  made  him 
welcome.  In  495  B.C.  the  Duke  of  Chung- tu 
died,  and  his  successor  invited  the  sage  to  return 
to  his  old  surroundings,  though  Confucius  does 
not  seem  to  have  done  this  until  485  or  484  B.C. 
His  few  remaining  years  were  spent  in  editing 
certain  Chinese  Classics  and  in  the  composition 
of  the  only  work  which  can  be  definitely  as- 
signed to  him,  the  Chun-Chiu,  an  account  of 
the  history  of  Lu  from  722  to  481  B.C.  Two 
years  after  the  last  entry,  or  early  in  479  B.C., 
the  philosopher  died. 

After  the  death  of  Confucius  his  disciples  com- 
piled books  of  his  say  ings, anecdotes  of  his  travels, 
and  numerous  reminiscences  of  his  everyday  life. 
We  thus  possess  fairly  complete  information 
regarding  the  great  Chinese  sage,  and  from  all 
that  has  been  recorded  it  is  a  fairly  simple 
matter  to  give  an  outline  of  his  moral  system, 


214  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

It  has  been  stated  in  a  previous  chapter  that 
the  Chinese  were  one  of  the  peoples  who  evolved 
from  barbarism  to  a  state  of  high  culture 
and  civilisation  without  developing  the  idea  of 
a  god.  This  statement  holds  true,  in  spite  of 
the  fact  that  from  very  early  times  we  find  the 
heavens  worshipped  under  the  name  of  Tien  or 
Ti,  meaning  ruler.  No  god,  however,  was 
ever  devised  like  the  Hindoo  Brahma  or  the 
Arabian  Allah.  The  worship  of  any  superior 
power  is  vested  in  the  emperor  as  the  supreme 
sovereign  and  priest  of  his  people,  just  as  in 
Japan  the  Mikado  is  looked  upon  as  a  descendant 
of  the  gods. 

The  Chinese,  even  before  they  were  conquered 
by  the  Manchus  in  the  seventeenth  century  of 
our  era,  exhibited  the  typical  Asiatic  quality  of 
amenability  to  superior  minds,  as  may  be  judged 
from  a  saying  which  was  current  in  China  at  least 
eighteen  centuries  before  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era  :  "  Heaven  gives  birth  to  the 
people  with  such  desires  that  without  a  ruler 
they  would  fall  into  all  kinds  of  disorder,  and 
Heaven  again  gives  birth  to  the  man  of  intelli- 
gence to  regulate  them."  The  sovereign  and 
the  philosopher  are  thus  both  sent  by  Heaven, 
and  we  meet  with  them  at  every  turn  in  Chinese 
history.  How  far  Confucius  was  influenced  by 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       215 

his  predecessors  it  is  now  impossible  to  say, 
but  there  is  no  doubt  that  he  devoted  an  im- 
mense amount  of  attention  to  the  works  of  those 
who  had  preceded  him.  <(  The  ancients,"  he 
would  say,  "  hesitated  to  give  utterance  to  their 
thoughts  ;  they  were  afraid  that  their  actions 
might  not  be  equal  to  their^  words."  That  he 
himself  was  not  afraid  to  do  so  may  easily  be 
observed  from  the  respectable  collection  of 
sayings  attributed  to  him,  no  doubt  justly,  in- 
cluding one  in  particular  recorded  by  a  disciple  : 
"  Chu-wen-tzu  used  to  reflect  thrice  before  he 
acted.  When  told  of  this  the  Master  said, 
'Twice  would  do.'"  The  whole  philosophy 
of  Confucius  may  be  said  to  be  directed  to  one 
end  :  to  influence  people  in  such  a  way  that 
they  should  recompense  good  with  good  and 
evil  with  justice,  unlike  Lao-Tze,  who  was 
hailed  with  delight  by  the  descendants  of  the 
Ebionites  because  he  elaborated  the  so-called 
very  impractical  Golden  Rule  :  "  Reward  evil 
with  good  and  good  with  better." 

During  his  tenure  of  office  as  Governor  of 
Chung-tu,  Confucius  took  full  advantage 
of  the  numerous  opportunities  he  had  to 
study  men  and  things.  Hence  we  find^him 
expressing  shrewd  opinions  on  what  con- 
stitutes good  government,  the  duties  of  the 


216  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

people,  the  privileges  of  the  rulers,  etc. 
"  The  people/'  he  says,  for  example,  "  can 
be  made  to  follow  a  certain  path,  but  they 
cannot  be  made  to  know  the  reason  why." 
Although  in  general  Confucius  exhibits  the 
vice  common  to  all  Chinese  philosophers 
of  relying  upon  "  facts"  and  " reason"  more 
than  upon  instinct,  there  is  at  least  one 
instance  in  which  he  shows  his  disbelief  in 
the  strict  type  of  morality  which  we  might 
expect,  say,  from  Socrates.  The  example 
I  have  in  mind  is  the  anecdote  concerning 
the  Duke  of  She,  who  addressed  the  sage, 
saying :  (<  We  have  an  upright  man  in  our 
country.  His  father  stole  a  sheep,  and  the 
son  bore  witness  against  him." — "  In  our 
country,"  Confucius  replied,  "  uprightness  is 
something  different  from  this.  A  father 
hides  the  guilt  of  his  son,  and  a  son  hides 
the  guilt  of  his  father.  It  is  in  such  conduct 
that  true  uprightness  is  to  be  found."  Again, 
the  distinction  between  an  aristocrat  and  a 
democrat  when  holding  office  is  well  summed 
up  in  the  pithy  remark  :  "  The  nobler  sort 
of  man  is  dignified  but  not  proud ;  the 
inferior  man  is  proud  but  not  dignified" — 
obviously  a  reminiscence  of  some  jack-in- 
office  whom  Confucius  had  observed  in  his 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       217 

own  or  some  other  state.  That  he  knew  his 
own  defects  as  a  Socratian  rather  than  as  one 
of  the  earlier  Greeks  is  seen  in  his  saying  : 
"  There  may  be  men,  I  daresay,  who  act 
rightly  without  knowing  the  reason  why, 
but  I  am  not  one  of  them.  Having  heard 
much  I  sift  out  the  good  and  practise  it ; 
having  seen  much  I  retain  it  in  my  memory. 
This  is  the  second  order  of  wisdom. " 

A  surprisingly  modern  statement,  and  one 
which  Christian  commentators  have  apparently 
overlooked  is  :  "  It  is  the  man  that  is  able 
to  develop  his  virtue,  not  virtue  which 
develops  the  man."  Another  anti-socialistic 
opinion  is  found  in  the  anecdote  :  "  The 
Master  wished  to  settle  among  the  nine 
eastern  tribes.  Some  one  said  :  ( How  can 
you  ?  they  are  savages/  The  Master  replied  : 
'  If  a  higher  type  of  man  dwelt  in  their  midst, 
how  could  their  savage  condition  last?'1  In 
modern  times,  of  course,  it  is  the  lower  spirits 
which  are  trying  to  drag  down  the  higher  to 
their  own  level,  and  in  only  too  many  cases, 
unfortunately,  they  succeed.  Like  the 
writings  of  all  Chinese  philosophers,  the 
works  of  Confucius  are  set  forth  in  an 
anarchical  fashion  ;  there  is  no  attempt  at 
order  or  arrangement,  and  the  student  is  left 


2i8  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

to  read  through  apophthegm  after  apophthegm 
to  discover  the  kernel  of  the  teaching.  Apart 
from  the  good-for-good  and  justice-for-evil 
regulations  already  referred  to,  the  wisdom 
of  the  great  sage  has  been  summarised  by  one 
of  his  followers  almost  as  well  as  it  is  possible 
to  do  so  :  "  The  Master  said  :  •  Shen,  a  single 
principle  runs  through  all  my  teaching/  Tseng 
Tzu  answered,  (Yes.'  When  he  had  gone 
out,  the  disciples  asked,  saying  :  (  What  does 
he  mean  ? '  Tseng  Tzu  said  :  f  Our  Master's 
teaching  simply  amounts  to  this  :  loyalty  to 
one's  self  and  charity  to  one's  neighbours  : ' 

So  greatly  have  the  maxims  of  Confucius  on 
government  and  morals  influenced  the  rulers 
of  China  that  the  reigning  emperor  does 
homage  to  him  twice  a  year  in  the  Imperial 
College  at  Pekin,  while  the  descendants  of  the 
great  philosopher  bear  the  title  of  Kung  (Duke), 
and  own  a  large  amount  of  property.  In  spite 
of  the  attempts  of  the  Student-Missionary 
Legge  to  saddle  Confucius  with  a  belief  in  a 
superior  being  and  a  future  life,  the  fact 
remains  that  there  is  no  justification  for  this. 
The  sayings  of  Confucius  have  exercised  a 

1  Mr  L.  Giles,  in  his  Sayings  of  Confucius  (Wisdom  of  the  East 
series),  was  the  first  European  to  give  a  correct  interpretation  and 
translation  of  this  apophthegm. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       219 

wide  and  profound  influence  throughout  China 
and  Japan  for  centuries ;  but  they  form  a 
system  of  morality  and  not  a  religion  in  the 
modern  sense  of  the  word.  Of  course,  for 
the  purposes  of  a  modern  thinker,  there  is 
no  difference  between  "religion" — by  which  is 
usually  meant  merely  the  ritual  and  dogmas 
of  a  faith  —  and  the  system  of  morality  it 
advocates,  and  there  is  therefore  no  reason 
why  Confucianism  should  not  be  treated  as 
a  religious  system,  but  it  certainly  cannot  be 
called  a  religion  as  we  should  apply  this  word 
to  faiths  in  which  deities  are  introduced,  as, 
for  example,  Brahmanism  or  Mohammedanism. 
Although  Confucius  was  a  man  of  a  fairly 
high  order  of  intellect,  he  nevertheless  did  not 
possess  the  creative  faculty  in  any  marked 
degree,  but  a  Chinese  philosopher  who  did, 
and  who  actually  founded  another  "  religion," 
was  Lao-Tze,  some  of  whose  sayings,  thrown 
at  the  reader  in  the  usual  haphazard  Chinese 
fashion,  are  much  more  aristocratic  than  those 
of  Confucius.  Lao-Tze  devised  Taoism,  or 
"the  way,"  which,  in  a  greatly  corrupted 
form,  shares  with  Buddhism  and  Confucianism 
the  distinction  of  being  one  of  the  three  great 
religions  of  China,  and  which  at  times  is  so 
subtle  as  almost  to  merit  the  praise  of  being 


220  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

Machiavellian.  Indeed,  since  Lao-Tze  was 
born  at  Loh,  not  far  from  the  present  city 
of  Loh-Yang  in  Ho-nan,  in  604  B.C.,  it  is 
not  too  much  to  imagine  that  some  of  his 
opinions  may  have  circulated  as  far  as  Greece, 
in  time  to  be  picked  up  by  Aristotle,  who  was 
not  born  until  nearly  two  centuries  later, 
and  in  whose  works  Machiavelli  found  many 
hints  for  his  Prince.  Among  the  numerous 
legends  which  were  not  long  in  gathering 
about  Lao-Tze,  the  most  remarkable  is  that 
he  was  carried  in  his  mother's  womb  for 
eighty  years,  hence  his  name,  which  means 
Old  Son,  or,  as  at  least  one  English  critic  has 
irreverently  suggested,  the  Old  Boy.  Very 
few  particulars  of  his  life  have  come  down  to 
us,  and  we  do  not  even  know  the  date  of  his 
death.  That  he  met  Confucius  about  517  B.C. 
seems  to  be  tolerably  well  established. 

Taoism  as  a  system  of  morality  at  the 
present  day  has  been,  like  Shintoism  in  Japan, 
greatly  corrupted  by  Buddhism,  and  its  pursuit 
of  the  philosopher's  stone  and  the  elixir  of 
life,  together  with  many  other  superstitions 
which  have  gathered  round  it,  are  very  far 
removed  indeed  from  the  teaching  of  its 
founder.  In  form,  Lao-Tze's  doctrines 
resemble  those  of  Confucius,  except  that  they 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       221 

are,  as  already  mentioned,  rather  more  aristo- 
cratic. Tao,  a  word  which  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  define  fully  and  accurately,  refers 
to  "  the  way  "  in  which  things  first  came  into 
being  out  of  primordial  nothingness,  and  how, 
without  struggling  or  striving,  the  phenomena 
of  nature  still  continue.  There  should  also, 
according  to  Lao-Tze,  be  no  striving  in  the 
life  of  man,  in  order  that  things  may  come  to 
a  successful  issue  without  effort,  which  is  the 
rule  laid  down  for  all  human  action,  or  rather 
inaction.  The  secret  of  government  is  to  let 
men  alone  as  much  as  possible.  While  un- 
doubtedly the  right  ideal  at  which  to  aim,  this 
is  enough  to  drive  the  modern  democratic 
sociologist  quite  frantic.  "  The  empire  has 
ever  been  won  by  letting  things  take  their 
course.  He  who  is  always  doing  is  unfit  to 
obtain  the  empire."  A  very  true  saying,  when 
properly  considered  ;  and  how  much  above 
the  grasp  of  a  man  like  Herbert  Spencer,  with 
his  "  Life  is  activity  "  !  "  It  is  not,"  says  Lao- 
Tze,  "  practise  inaction,  occupy  yourself  with 
doing  nothing.  Leave  all  things  to  take  their 
natural  course  and  do  not  interfere.  Tao  is 
entirely  inactive,  and  yet  it  leaves  nothing 
undone." 

Truly  Nietzschian  is  one  of  his  last  dicta  : 


222  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

"  They  who  know  me  are  very  few,  and  on 
that  account  my  honour  is  the  greater." 
Those  who  look  forward  to  the  extinction  of 
evil  will  hardly  be  comforted  by  the 
apophthegm  :  "  Among  mankind  the  recogni- 
tion of  beauty,  as  such,  implies  the  idea  of 
ugliness,  and  the  recognition  of  good  implies 
the  idea  of  evil."  What  would  a  hard-headed 
Liberal  say  to  this  :  "  In  ancient  times  those 
who  knew  how  to  practise  Tao  did  not  use  it 
to  enlighten  the  people,  but  rather  to  keep 
them  in  ignorance.  The  difficulty  of  governing 
the  people  arises  from  their  having  too  much 
knowledge.  Fishes  must  not  be  taken  from 
the  water  :  the  methods  of  government  may 
not  be  exhibited  to  the  people.  If  the  people 
do  not  fear  the  majesty  of  government  a  reign 
of  terror  will  ensue."  But  the  Tory  squire 
and  the  grasping  capitalist  employer  should 
equally  lay  to  heart  the  statement  :  "  Do  not 
confine  the  people  within  too  narrow  bounds  ; 
do  not  make  their  lives  too  weary.  For  if  you 
do  not  weary  them  of  life,  then  they  will  not 
grow  weary  of  you."  Another  commentary 
on  democracy  and  socialism,  and  the 
consequent  fussiness  and  interfering  which 
they  inevitably  bring  about,  may  be  found  in 
the  dictum  :  "  As  restrictions  and  prohibitions 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       223 

multiply  in  an  empire  the  people  become 
poorer  and  poorer.  When  the  people  are 
subjected  to  overmuch  government,  the  land 
is  thrown  into  confusion.  The  greater  the 
number  of  laws  and  enactments  the  more 
thieves  and  robbers  there  will  be.  Therefore 
the  sage  says  :  '  So  long  as  I  do  nothing,  the 
people  will  work  out  their  own  reformation. 
So  long  as  I  love  calm,  the  people  will  right 
themselves.  If  only  I  can  keep  from  meddling, 
the  people  will  grow  rich. ' 

Only  one  other  Chinese  philosopher  calls  for 
special  mention,  viz.,  Meng-Tse,  better  known 
in  his  Latinised  form  of  Mencius.  He  appears 
to  have  been  born  in  the  province  of  Shan- 
tung about  372  B.C.,  which  would  make  him 
a  contemporary  of  Plato  and  Aristotle.  His 
mother,  we  are  told,  brought  him  up  so  well  that 
she  has  ever  since  been  held  up  as  a  model  for 
Chinese  women.  From  the  little  that  is  known 
about  the  life  of  Mencius,  we  gather  that 
he  studied  Confucius  and  originated  a  very 
practical,  almost  Socratian,  philosophy  for  the 
regulation  of  human  conduct.  When  about 
forty  years  of  age  he  led  his  followers  from 
place  to  place  in  the  endeavour  to  find  a  ruler 
who  would  put  into  practice  his  theoretic 
system  of  government.  Not  finding  one, 


224  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

however,  he  withdrew  into  retirement  and 
died  about  289  B.C.  His  conversations  and 
sayings  were  collected  by  his  disciples  and  cir- 
culated extensively  after  his  death,  and  it  must 
be  acknowledged  that  in  the  last  two  or  three 
centuries  his  doctrines  have  exercised  much 
influence  on  Chinese  ethics,  though  they  are 
not  very  closely  adhered  to  where  the  govern- 
ment of  the  country  is  concerned.  His  system 
is  based  on  an  almost  ludicrously  touching 
belief  in  the  innate  goodness  of  man. 
According  to  this  teaching,  man  should  collect 
and  utilise  the  virtues  of  benevolence,  wisdom, 
and  propriety,  which  come  out  of  his  goodness  ; 
for  if  this  were  done  both  individually  and 
collectively  the  result  would  be  a  liberal  and 
enlightened  political  system.  There  is  one 
characteristic  at  least  which  Mencius  shared 
with  modern  socialists  and  democrats  —  his 
intense  desire  for  the  education  of  the  people, 
without  considering  the  ultimate  purpose  of 
such  a  training,  or  how  far  it  might  be  utilised 
for  the  benefit  of  the  truly  cultured  and  intel- 
lectual men,  who  must  always  be  necessarily 
few  in  number. 


It  has  often  been  asked  why  China  has  given 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       225 

us  no  fine  poetry  or  inspiring  literature,  but 
merely  systems  of  morals  based  on  more  or 
less  shrewd  observations.  The  proper  answer 
is  doubtless  that  supplied  by  Gobineau,  viz., 
that  the  Chinese  have  always  been  very 
materialistic  in  their  requirements.  With  a 
few  cotton  rags  as  clothing,  and  a  dish  of  rice 
as  food,  most  of  their  physical  and  intellectual 
wants  are  satisfied.  They  have  always  been 
too  lukewarm  to  design  a  high  morality  or 
creed,  with  the  necessary  accompaniment  of 
a  deity  who  punishes  those  who  fail  to  live 
up  to  the  noble  ideal  and  rewards  those  who 
do,  such  as  the  Babylonian  Bel,  the  Hebrew 
Jehovah,  or  the  Mohammedan  Allah.  Their 
system  of  morals  has  never  been  tinctured  by 
anything  resembling  a  deep  faith.  Its  human 
origin  was  but  too  well  known,  and  the  maxims 
of  Confucius  or  Lao-Tze  might  be  taken  or 
left  at  the  will  of  those  who  heard  or  read 
them.  There  was  no  question  in  either  case 
of  reward  or  punishment  from  a  supernatural 
source,  and  thus  no  great  inducement  either 
to  heed  or  to  show  indifference.  A  superficial 
and  lukewarm  morality  of  this  nature  being 
purely  atheistic,  the  conception  of  a  deity  was 
not  necessary  to  enforce  it  upon  the  people. 
As  a  consequence,  in  all  the  long  history  of 


226  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

China,  we  do  not  find  a  trace  of  religious  wars, 
such  as  the  Crusades,  or  of  religious  persecu- 
tions such  as  those  which  disgraced  both 
Protestants  and  Catholics  about  the  time  of 
the  Reformation  and  long  afterwards,  merely 
because  in  China  there  was  no  definitely-held 
faith,  and  therefore  nothing  to  fight  for.  But 
the  conception  of  a  deity,  or  more  than  one, 
together  with  the  high  morality  or  moralities 
accompanying  such  a  conception,  is  absolutely 
necessary  for  inspiring  men  with  those  deep 
feelings  which  find  their  expression  in  noble 
verse. 

While  also  to  some  extent  applicable  to 
Japan,  these  remarks  are  not  so  entirely,  for 
in  the  younger  country  the  introduction  of 
the  Samurai  caste,  surrounded  as  it  was  by 
its  almost  mystic  halo  of  nobility,  may  be 
said  to  have  partly  taken  the  place  of  a 
supernatural  power,  though  of  course  on  a 
very  much  lower  plane,  a  plane  which  was  not 
even  high  enough  to  produce  a  Japanese  Calvin 
or  a  Melanchthon,  much  less  a  Mohammed  or 
a  Moses. 

Japan  is  probably  the  youngest  of  the  great 
Oriental  nations,  and,  in  view  of  the  rather 
mechanical  nature  of  the  minds  of  the  in- 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       227 

habitants,  one  or  two  Continental  thinkers 
have  somewhat  unkindly  dubbed  it  "  the 
England  of  the  Far  East/'  The  earliest 
documents  in  Japanese  pertaining  to  the 
history  of  the  country  date  from  the  eighth 
century  of  our  era  ;  so  that  many  Popes  had 
filled  the  See  of  Rome  long  before  a  single 
historical  Japanese  document  was  in  existence. 
It  has  virtually  been  established  that  the 
dominant  Japanese  tribe  came  from  the 
Western  Peninsula.  Yamate  (Island)  was 
the  district  which  gave  birth  to  the  tribe  which 
by  its  skill  and  daring  produced  the  Mikado 
system,  and  it  was  through  this  tribe  that 
Japanese  history  assumed  its  present  form. 
Like  the  Romans  in  Europe,  the  Yamate 
men  advanced  and  conquered,  actuated,  as 
they  believed,  by  a  divine  command.  Their 
feudal  system  of  organisation,  and  their  well- 
planned  campaigning  arrangements,  gave 
them  an  enormous  advantage  over  the  untrained 
hunters  and  fishermen  whom  they  met,  and 
they  completed  their  conquest  by  imposing 
their  superior  religious  system  on  the  conquered 
nations.  Their  chief,  or  Mikado,  was,  they 
said,  born  of  the  gods,  while  their  enemies 
were  merely  sprung  from  the  earth.  All 
worship  was  therefore  concentrated  upon  the 


228  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

Mikado,    who   was    regarded    as    the   earthly 
representative  of  the  sun  in  heaven. 

The  religious  system  of  this  conquering 
tribe  has  always  been  somewhat  loosely  referred 
to  as  Shintoism.  Shinto  is  the  Chinese  character 
representing  the  Japanese  phrase  Kami-no- 
Michi,  meaning  the  "  Way  of  the  Gods,"  i.e., 
theology.  Shintoism  in  its  pure  form  had  no 
trace  of  an  ethical  code,  idol  worship,  priest- 
craft, or  any  conception  of  a  future  state.  Its 
principal  divinity  was  the  sun-goddess,  Amate- 
rasu,  from  whom  the  Mikado  is  supposed  to 
have  descended.  The  creed  has  no  sacred 
books,  and  its  temples  are  practically  destitute 
of  any  adornment,  although  there  is  a  certain 
amount  of  ritual.  Trees,  rivers,  rocks,  moun- 
tains, fire,  and  other  natural  objects  are  "  wor- 
shipped," but  the  main  feature  ot  the  creed  is 
ancestor  worship — if,  indeed,  we  can  use  the 
words  "creed"  and  "  worship"  in  connection 
with  what  many  critics  deny  to  be  a  religious 
system  at  all.  It  has  been  pointed  out,  with 
some  justice,  that  Shintoism  is  a  means  of 
government  rather  than  a  religion  ;  and  its 
chief  purpose  is  the  upholding  of  the  Mikado 
dynasty.  As  one  of  its  main  features  is  the 
worship  of  the  Mikado  and  his  acknowledg- 
ment as  the  descendant  of  the  gods,  the  faith 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       229 

is  naturally  confined  to  Japan,  or  rather  to 
Japanese  subjects.  This  primitive  belief  held 
its  ground  in  a  pure  form  until  about  550  A.D., 
when  Buddhism  was  introduced  into  Japan 
from  China.  Shintoism  almost  at  once  came 
under  the  influence  of  the  Indian  religion,  and 
is  at  present  hardly  distinguishable  from  it,  more 
especially  as  there  are  no  fewer  than  thirty-five 
sects  of  Japanese  Buddhists. 

Apparently  it  was  not  until  the  introduction 
of  Buddhism  in  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century 
of  our  era  that  an  attempt  was  made  to  formu- 
larise  the  doctrines  of  Shinto,  and  to  set  them 
down  in  written  form  ;  but  these  ancient  docu- 
ments concerning  the  creed  can  now  only  be 
read  by  special  scholars,  even  among  the  Japanese 
themselves.  They  are  : — 

1.  The  Kojiki,  or  notices  of  ancient  things, 
setting  forth  the  doctrines  in  the  style  of  the 
Bible.     These  documents  may  indeed  be  called 
a  sort  of  Shinto  Bible. 

2.  The   Manyoshu,  or  Myriad   Poems,  ex- 
pressing the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  the  ancient 
Japanese,  and    giving  us  a  certain  amount   of 
information    concerning    their    manners    and 
customs,  and  describing  a  few  important  events 
depicted  by  poets  and  artists. 


330  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

3.  The  Norito,  which  describes  the  active 
side  of  the  religion. 

While  Shintoism  is  to  some  extent  supported 
by  the  Japanese  Government,  the  masses  of  the 
people  are  Buddhists.  Indeed,  the  popular 
classes  draw  so  slight  a  distinction  between  the 
two  faiths  that  both  Buddhist  and  Shinto 
temples  are  attended  without  discrimination. 
The  higher  classes  are,  generally  speaking, 
atheistic,  and  endeavour  to  model  their  lives 
on  the  precepts  of  Chinese  philosophers  such 
as  Confucius,  Lao-Tze,  and  Mencius.  One  of 
the  main  reasons  why  Shintoism  has  retained 
its  hold  on  Japan  for  so  long  is  to  be  found  in 
the  love  shown  by  the  Japanese  for  the  works 
of  nature  and  for  their  own  country.  When 
the  people,  through  Shintoism,  are  worshipping 
a  rock  or  a  stream  or  a  tree,  they  are  worship- 
ping at  the  same  time  nature,  their  fatherland, 
and  their  emperor.  The  simplicity  of  the 
ceremonial  may  be  seen  in  the  only  instrument 
of  worship  in  a  Shinto  temple,  viz.,  a  mirror. 
It  typifies  the  heart  which,  if  calm  and  peace- 
ful, is  the  image  of  the  deity  —  although, 
indeed,  it  is  thought  that  even  this  was  an 
innovation  introduced  by  Buddhists  shortly 
after  the  arrival  of  the  monks  from  China. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       231 

Critics,  however,  are    not    unanimous  on   this 
point. 

What  Europeans  usually  associate  with  Japan 
is  not  Shintoism,  Buddhism,  or  Taoism,  which 
is  also  one  of  the  minor  Japan  religions,  but 
Bushido.  Bu-shi-do  means  literally  Military 
Ways,  that  is,  the  manners  which  the  fighting 
nobility  are  called  upon  to  observe  in  their  daily 
life.  In  other  words,  the  regulations  of  Bushido 
are  simply  the  precepts  of  knighthood,  the 
noblesse  oblige  of  the  Japanese  warrior  caste. 
It  may,  perhaps,  be  best  compared  to  the  chi- 
valry existing  in  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
When  Bushido  was  definitely  inaugurated  in 
Japan,  about  the  twelfth  century,  a  class  of  pro- 
fessional warriors  naturally  came  into  promin- 
ence, as  was  also  the  case  in  Europe  with  the 
introduction  of  feudalism.  In  Japan  these 
warriors  were  known  as  Samurai,  i.e.,  guards  or 
attendants.  As  the  result  of  numerous  and 
severe  campaigns  of  fighting,  the  weak  and 
degenerate  succumbed^  thus  leaving  only  the 
strong  and  healthy  warriors  to  carry  on  the 
Samurai  caste,  so  that  the  way  was  paved  for 
a  certain  Samurai  philosophy,  viz.,  Bushido. 
There  is  no  written  code,  but  there  is  on  the 
other  hand  a  long  oral  tradition.  Much  of 
this  warrior  philosophy  has  been  traced  to  the 


232  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

sayings   of    the    three    Chinese    philosophers 
already  referred  to  in  this  chapter.     Continual 
stress  is  laid  upon  justice,  courage,  the  ability 
to   bear   pain   and   misfortune.     Bushido  was 
never  sought  by  the  Samurai  as  an  end  in  itself, 
but  as  a  means  to  the  attainment  of  wisdom. 
This  was  conceived  of  as  identical  with  its  practi- 
cal application  to  life,  summarised  in  the  maxim  : 
"  To  know  and  to  act  are  one  and  the  same 
thing."       The    training   tended    to    inculcate 
politeness  and   truthfulness,  so  much  so   that 
the  mere  word  of  a  Samurai  was  assumed  to  be 
a  sufficient  guarantee  for  the  truth  of  an  asser- 
tion.      It    also  encouraged   mercy,    especially 
among  equals  ;  but  there  was  no  weakness  or 
humanitarianism.     It  was  among  the  Samurai 
that  the  legalised  mode  of  suicide,  Hari-Kari, 
first  came  into  prominence,  though  this,  since 
the  abolition  of  feudalism  in  1868,  has  become 
practically  obsolete.     While  commonly  looked 
upon  as  merely  suicide,  accomplished  by  dis- 
embowelling, Hari-Kari  was  really  more  than 
this,  as   it  was  a  kind  of  religious  and   legal 
ceremony.     The  practice  hardly  calls  for  dis- 
cussion here,  being  merely  an  offshoot  from  a 
system  of  philosophy  for  which  there  is  now  no 
further  need,  but  the  student  who  is  interested 
in  customs  of  this  nature  may  find    it  worth 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       233 

while  to  compare  the  views  on  suicide  held 
by  the  ancient  Greeks,  and  also  Nietzsche's 
chapter  in  "  Thus  spake  Zarathustra  "  regarding 
voluntary  death. 

As  for  the  remarkable  influence  of  Bushido 
on  the  national  life  of  the  Japanese,  an  observa- 
tion by  Nitobe  in  his  work  on  Bushido  is  worthy 
of  note  in  these  democratic  days  :  "  As  England 
owes  all  her  liberty,  law,  art,  and  literature  to 
the  upper  classes,  so  does  Japan  owe  everything 
to  the  Samurai.  They  were  not  only  the  flower 
of  the  nation,  but  its  right  hand  as  well.  All 
the  gracious  gifts  of  Heaven  flowed  through 
them.  Though  they  kept  themselves  socially 
aloof  from  the  populace,  they  set  a  moral 
standard  for  them  and  guided  them  by  their 
example." 


CHAPTER   X 

Minor  Asiatic  Religions — The  Babylonians — 
Zoroaster — Parsees — Hittites — Mithraism 

So  far  as  diversity  of  population  is  concerned, 
Babylonia,  the  Shinar,  Babel,  and  "land  of 
the  Chaldees,"  of  the  Bible,  and  now  the 
modern  Arabian  province  of  Irak-Arabi,  may 
be  described  as  the  U.S.A.  of  ancient  Asia,  and 
evidence  to  this  effect  is  forthcoming  from  both 
sacred  and  classical  writers.  From  the  earliest 
of  the  inscriptions  hitherto  discovered,  which 
date  back  to  about  7000  B.C.,  it  would  appear 
that  the  most  primitive  inhabitants  of  the 
country  belonged  to  the  Ugro-Finnic  branch 
of  the  Turanians,  and,  in  addition  to  the  lingu- 
istic evidence,  statues  which  have  recently  been 
unearthed  show  that  the  early  inhabitants  had 
the  true  Tartar  type  of  features.  It  would 
seem,  too,  that  a  Semitic  element  was  soon 
introduced  into  the  population.  According  to 
the  Biblical  narrative,  Noah  begat  Shem  about 
2448  B.C.,  but  the  Semites  date  from  a  much 
earlier  period  than  this  ;  for  the  race  emigrated 
from  Arabia  into  Mesopotamia  about  4500  B.C. 

234 


RELIGIONS  AND  PHILOSOPHIES    235 

But  numerous  wars  and  extended  commercial 
development  introduced  many  other  elements, 
and  certainly  about  4000  B.C.,  Babylon  itself 
was  a  famous,  highly-civilised,  and  prosperous 
city.  How  far  this  civilisation  dates  back 
before  the  period  mentioned  can  now  only  be 
conjectured,  though  the  patient  researches  of 
antiquaries  are  bringing  forward  fresh  evidence 
year  by  year.  The  expedition  sent  to  Baby- 
lonia in  1888,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania,  unearthed  a  temple 
which  was  shown  to  have  been  erected  not  later 
than  7000  B.C.  But  a  temple  presupposes  a 
highly-developed  religion.  The  stone  whorl 
in  the  British  Museum,  inscribed  with  the 
name  of  Sargon  I.,  King  of  Akkad,  is  gener- 
ally assigned  to  a  much  later  date,  3800  B.C. 
Other  tablets  testify  to  a  well-thought-out 
form  of  government  about  6000  B.C.,  and, 
apart  from  the  evidence  afforded  by  Herodotus 
— whose  veracity  is  more  and  more  sustained 
by  every  fresh  discovery  which  has  been  made 
— sufficient  stones  and  tablets  remain  to  give 
us  a  very  fair  conception  of  the  essentials  of 
the  life  of  the  people  who  inhabited  this  part 
of  Asia  fifty  centuries  ago. 

Apart  from  Babylon,  other  celebrated  towns 
and  cities  had  come  into  existence  in  Babylonia 


236  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

at  a  very  early  stage.     One  of  the  most  ancient 
is  Eridu  or  Eri-dugga  (  "  holy  city  " ),  which 
in  early  times  was  a  part  of  the  Persian  Gulf, 
though  alluvial  deposits  have  in  the  course  of 
centuries  filled  up  much  of  the  northern  part  of 
the  Gulf.     Probably  Eridu  came  into  promin- 
ence  even   earlier   than  Babylon,   for    it    was 
doubtless    here    that    some   wandering    tribe 
entered    Chaldea   from    the   East.     The  most 
primitive  indications  of   the  spiritual  side    of 
the  people  show  us  that  fetishism  was  the  sole 
nature  of  their  worship,  but,  with  the  arrival 
of  the  invaders  from  the  East,  water-gods  came 
into   notice.     We  find    deities  referred    to  in 
inscriptions  as  "  Lord  of  the  waves/'  "  King  of 
the  ocean/'  "  God  of  rivers/'  and  later  on  these 
titles  vary   to  "  Lord   of  wisdom,"  (<  the  All- 
knower,"  and  "  God  of  Laws."     The  supreme 
divinity  of  the  sea  was  the  God  Ea,  a  legend 
concerning   whom   is  recorded    by  Berosus,   a 
Babylonian  priest,   who   flourished  about    200 
B.C.,    and    wrote    in    Greek    a    history    of   his 
country,    several    fragments    of    which    have 
come  down  to  us.     Ea,  the  legend  runs,  arose 
from  the  sea,  to   teach  man    the  elements  of 
civilisation.       He    appeared    regularly    every 
morning,  his  bright  halo  dispelling  the  mists 
and    driving   away   the   darkness,    and    every 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       237 

evening,  when  his  task  was  done,  he  returned 
to  his  throne  far  away  on  the  horizon,  giving 
place  once  more  to  obscurity  and  gloom.  The 
god  held  no  direct  communication  with  the 
people,  but  they  heard  his  voice  in  the  waves 
as  they  dashed  upon  the  beach,  and  they  felt 
his  breath  in  the  breezes.  A  remarkable  ana- 
logy is  suggested  to  us  by  an  inscription  saying 
that  people  sitting  in  their  gardens  at  even- 
tide heard  the  god  talking  to  them  in  the 
wind ;  for  it  at  once  suggests  Gen.  iii.  8  : 
"  And  they  heard  the  voice  of  the  Lord  God 
walking  in  the  garden  in  the  cool  of  the 
day,"  In  the  old  hymns  we  find  traces  of 
Ea  communicating  with  mankind  through  his 
son,  Mardugga  ( "  holy  son"),  a  name  after- 
wards corrupted  into  Merodach  or  Marduk. 
Ea,  too,  had  a  consort,  Dav-Kina,  who  personi- 
fied the  earth  as  her  lord  personified  the  sea  ; 
and  water  and  earth  were  the  elements  out  of 
which  the  entire  cosmos  arose.  The  couple 
had  a  son  Tammuz  (  "  the  soul  begotten"), 
who  is  identical  with  the  Merodach  just 
referred  to.  Tammuz  also  had  a  consort, 
Istar,  and  the  worship  of  these  four  deities 
continued  throughout  many  generations.  The 
serpent  is  mentioned  in  the  hymns  of  the  early 
Babylonians  as  he  is  in  Genesis.  There  is 


238  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

perpetual  conflict  between  the  day  and  the 
night.  The  serpent  holds  the  earth  in  his 
coils.  Then  the  bright  god  rises  in  the  east 
and  darts  a  ray  of  light  like  an  arrow — the  arrow 
of  Apollo  being  an  analogy  which  will  readily 
occur  to  the  student.  The  serpent  is  struck 
and  a  golden-red  blood  begins  to  flow.  The 
coils  which  have  held  the  world  in  darkness 
slowly  unfold,  admitting  the  bright  sun-god. 
"  The  victor/'  says  the  old  chronicle,  <s  crushes 
in  the  head  of  the  serpent. "  Hours  elapse  and 
the  victor  makes  his  way  towards  the  west, 
while  the  serpent  again  appears.  It  is  his  turn 
this  time,  and  the  horizon  is  once  more  stained 
with  blood  as  the  setting  sun  sinks  slowly  out 
of  sight.  "It  shall  bruise  thy  head/'  says  the 
writer  of  Genesis,  centuries  later,  "  and  thou 
shalt  bruise  his  heel." 

As  civilisation  advanced  throughout  the 
country  other  and  more  local  gods  arose.  We 
find,  for  instance,  a  certain  Mul-lil,  the  older 
Bel  of  the  Semites,  sacred  to  the  city  of  Nipur 
(the  modern  Niffer).  One  of  his  descendants 
is  the  moon-god,  whose  sacred  city  was  Ur, 
and  his  worship  spread  even  to  Syria  and 
Arabia.  It  is  in  Ur  ("light")  that  we  find 
the  first  traces  of  the  Semites  in  Babylonia, 
and  the  city  will  always  be  held  sacred  as  the 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       239 

home  of  Terah,  the  father  of  Abram,  the  father 
of  the  Jews. 

We  find  the  moon-god   worshipped   under 
various    names,    the     most    important    being 
"Aku,"  the  disc,  "Nannar"  or  "  Nannak," 
the  bright  one,  and  "  Sin,"  the   bright — this 
root  being  also  found  in  Sinai  and  the  wilder- 
ness of  Sin.     The  worship   of  the  moon,  as 
is  generally  the  case  among  wandering  tribes, 
preceded  the  worship  of  the  sun,  so  in  early 
Semitic  mythology  we  find  the  moon  repre- 
sented  as   the  father  of   the  sun.     Recently- 
discovered    fragments     have     enabled    us    to 
decipher    the    hymns    sung    and    the    liturgy 
employed   in    some    renowned   temple    which 
was  probably  used  as  a  place  of  worship  even 
by    the   ancestors    of    Terah.     Many   phrases 
occur  in   them    which   were   repeated    twenty 
centuries  later  by  the  Hebrew  psalmists.     The 
sun,  for  example,  "  comes  out  of  his  chamber" 
in    old    Babylonia    "  like   a   wife    pleased    and 
giving  pleasure,"  as  he  does  in  almost  similar 
words   in   Psalm  xix.  5.     He   spreads  bright 
light,  "his   name  is  in  all  mouths,"  he  is  a 
"  banner,"  and  his  strength,  like  Samson's,  lies 
in  his  bright  locks  and  beard. 

Many  of  these  local  deities  disappeared  in 
3800   B.C.  when  Sargon    I.    became   king    and 


240  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

endeavoured  to  unite  the  different  cities  into 
one  compact  empire.  This  consolidation  was 
triumphantly  carried  out  by  one  of  his  suc- 
cessors, Cammurabi,  who  proclaimed  himself 
King  of  North  and  South  Babylonia  and  made 
Babylon  his  capital  about  2200  B.C.  From 
this  time  Babylon  flourished  more  than  ever  : 
schools,  libraries,  and  observatories  were  built, 
and  scholars,  priests,  and  jurists  made  the  city 
their  headquarters.  But  more  important  still, 
from  a  religious  point  of  view,  was  the  fact 
that  the  local  god  of  Babylon  was  elevated 
into  the  position  of  a  national  deity,  as  King 
Asoka  was  destined  to  elevate  Buddhism  two 
thousand  years  later.  The  local  god  was 
Merodach  ;  but  he  now  assumed  the  attributes 
of  Ea  and  of  Bel,  "  the  Lord  of  the  world,"  being 
henceforth  known  as  Bel-Merodach.  We  shall 
find  him  referred  to  as  Belus  in  our  Herodotus, 
while  Strabo  and  Diodorus  also  make  mention 
of  him.  But  from  now  on  we  have  more 
information  about  the  history  of  Babylon  than 
about  its  religion.  Despite  many  revolts  and 
successive  captures,  we  know  that  until  about 
560  B.C.  Merodach  was  worshipped  and  revered 
by  the  Babylonians,  but  about  this  time  the 
people  seemed  to  become  careless  in  their 
religious  beliefs.  Inscription  after  inscription 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       241 

bears  the  phrase  "  Bel  came  not  forth,"  tending 
to  show  that  the  images  of  the  gods  were  no 
longer  brought  out  for  the  annual  procession. 

Nabonidus,  the  father  of  Belshazzar,  and 
the  last  of  the  native  Babylonian  kings,  was 
of  a  vacillating  and  easy-going  disposition,  and, 
like  the  Ahasuerus  mentioned  in  the  book 
of  Esther,  cared  more  for  voluptuousness 
and  antiquarian  research  than  for  attending 
to  his  nominal  duties  as  a  ruler.  In  his  zeal 
for  forming  large  collections  of  antiquities, 
he  secured  for  the  great  temple  of  Bel  in 
Babylon  various  statues  from  the  smaller 
cities  representing  local  deities.  From  the 
point  of  view  of  the  modern  historical  and 
philological  student,  this  was  an  admirable 
practice ;  but  at  the  time  it  had  two  very 
bad  effects.  In  the  first  place,  the  local 
priests  were  indignant  at  the  loss  of  their 
idols,  accompanied,  as  it  naturally  was,  with 
a  diminution  of  their  local  prestige,  while  the 
priests  of  Bel-Merodach  in  Babylon  were 
incensed  at  the  introduction  into  the  temple 
of  a  number  of  strange  idols  and  gods — their 
anger  extending  in  course  of  time  to  Bel- 
Merodach  himself,  who,  when  forced  into 
competition  with  other  deities,  withdrew  his 

protection    from    the    city.     The    immediate 
Q 


242  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

result  of  this  was  a  spirit  of  revolt  whic 
gradually  spread  through  the  country  and 
caused  the  Babylonians  to  look  for  some  one 
to  free  them  from  their  unpopular  king. 
The  anger  of  the  god  extended  to  his  son, 
Belshazzar,  who  was  also  marked  out  for 
destruction,  and  was  in  fact  assassinated  in 
538  B.C.,  when  Babylon  fell  into  the  hands 
of  the  great  Persian,  Cyrus.  Nabonidus  him- 
self died  a  week  afterwards,  and  the  conqueror 
was  hailed  as  the  restorer  of  the  old  religion,  to 
which  it  appears  Cyrus  was  tactful  enough  to 
lend  his  countenance. 

In  connection  with  this  revolt  and  the  entry 
of  Cyrus  into  Babylon,  the  student  will  be 
struck  with  a  curious  fact,  one  of  those 
numerous  incidents  where  we  see  history 
repeating  itself.  The  Persian  king  wanted 
money  for  the  expedition,  and  before  the 
war  could  be  undertaken  a  great  Babylonian 
banking  house  was  appealed  to  for  funds. 
This  is,  of  course,  the  modern  procedure  also  ; 
but  the  remarkable  analogy  is  the  fact  that 
twenty-five  centuries  ago,  as  at  the  present 
day,  the  bankers  thus  appealed  to  were  Jews, 
just  as  the  modern  conqueror  might  find  it 
necessary  to  consult  the  Rothschilds.  The 
Babylonian  firm  concerned  was  that  of  Ikibi 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       243 

Bros.,  which  name  is  the  exact  equivalent  of 
Yakob,  i.e.,  Jacob.  Among  the  numerous 
bonds  connecting  the  East  and  West,  I  have 
thought  it  worthy  to  put  on  record  this 
curious  historical  fragment  of  such  human 
interest. 

While  the  influence  of  the  Babylonians  on 
the  Jews  is  dealt  with  more  particularly  in  the 
chapter  on  Judaism,  one  analogy  between  the 
peoples  may  be  mentioned  here.  Merodach, 
as  will  have  been  observed  from  the  withdrawal 
of  his  protection  from  Babylon  when  other 
deities  were  brought  into  the  city,  was  a 
jealous  god  like  Jehovah.  The  Babylonian 
temples  corresponded  in  a  great  measure  to 
the  synagogue,  and  even  the  Babylonian  feast- 
days  bore  a  great  resemblance  to  the  Jewish 
feast-days.  Indeed,  even  the  arrangement  and 
decoration  of  the  temples  corresponded  ;  and 
the  Jewish  rite  of  circumcision  was  long  a 
Chaldean  custom.  Lenormant  and  Sayce, 
in  their  various  works  dealing  with  the 
monuments  of  antiquity,  have  thrown  much 
light  on  another  item  connecting  the  Baby- 
lonians with  the  Jews,  viz.,  the  Tower  of 
Babel.  Babel  is  the  Assyrian  Bab-ili,  "  the 
gate  of  God/'  the  Semitic  rendering  of  the 
name  of  the  Accadian  town  Ca-Dimira,  "  Ca," 


244  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

meaning(<gate,"and"Dimira,"  "God".1  While 
Berosus  makes  no  mention  of  the  story,  George 
Smith,  the  well-known  Assyriologist,  found 
a  cuneiform  inscription  which,  when  deciphered, 
appeared  to  be  almost  identical  with  the 
narrative  in  Genesis  xi.  The  "  Father  of  the 
Gods/'  whose  anger  is  aroused  against  the 
builders,  is  Bel  in  this  inscription  ;  and  it 
is  conjectured,  with  much  plausibility,  that 
the  story  of  the  Giants  and  Titans  of  Greek 
mythology  has  been  derived  from  this  Assyrian 
story  of  the  Tower  of  Babel,  the  essential 
facts  of  the  legend  being  doubtless  conveyed 
to  Greece  by  the  Phoenicians.  It  is  at  all 
events  practically  certain  that  the  site  of  the 
tower  was  somewhere  in  or  near  Babylon. 
Most  critics  regard  it  as  being  identical  with 
the  ruins  of  Birs  Nimroud  in  Borsippa,  a 
suburb  of  Babylon,  which  was  dedicated  to 
the  God  Nebo,  mentioned  in  Isaiah.  This 
temple  or  tower  had  remained  unfinished  for 
many  generations  until  Nebuchadnezzar  at 
one  time  proposed  to  complete  it.  A  legend 
would  naturally  grow  up  around  the  half-built 
tower,  and  the  number  of  languages  spoken 
in  the  Mesopotamia!!  plain  would  be  easily 

1  Before  philology  began  to  be  properly  studied,  the  explanation  of 
Babel  was  that  it  came  from  the  Hebrew  babbel,  meaning  to  confound  ; 
but  no  scholar  would  now  put  forward  this  derivation. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST      245 

accounted  for  by  saying  that  the  god  had 
confounded  the  original  tongue  spoken  by 
the  people  to  punish  them  for  attempting  to 
scale  the  lofty  path  leading  to  his  throne. 


When  we  come  to  sum  up  the  religion  of 
Babylonia,  we  are  somewhat  at  a  disadvantage. 
We  have,  from  the  records  of  classical  writers 
and  recently  discovered  inscriptions,  a  fairly 
large  mass  of  material  dealing  with  the  history 
of  the  people  ;  but  we  cannot  answer  the 
question  which  Nietzsche  would  have  asked  : 
What  were  their  standards  of  moral  values  ? 
The  few  particulars  we  have  about  their  local 
deities  and  their  supreme  god  tell  us  very 
little.  We  can  judge  from  their  having  so 
much  in  common  with  the  Jews  that  they 
were  originally  a  strong  and  noble  race,  but 
they  undoubtedly  declined,  and  Gobineau, 
who  has  probably  studied  the  question  of 
races  more  thoroughly  than  any  man  before 
him  or  since,  has  given  us  the  reason  in  one 
word  :  intermixture.  It  is  useless  for  theo- 
logically-minded critics  to  point  to  long  years 
of  prosperity  and  immorality  as  the  reason 
why  a  race  should  begin  to  degenerate  : 
Gobineau  insists,  and  rightly,  that  sexual 


246  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

immorality  may  be  a  sign  of  strength  as  much 
as  of  weakness,  and  that  prosperity  will  not 
spoil  a  nation  so  long  as  the  blood  remains 
pure  ;  but  once  let  the  castes  become  mixed, 
or  lower  races  become  allied  to  the  higher 
through  marriage,  and  the  end  is  in  sight. 

Among  the  minor  religions  and  philosophies 
of  Asia,  Zoroastrianism,  the  religion  of  the 
Parsees,  claims  a  prominent  place.  Its  teach- 
ing is  contained  in  the  Avesta,  which,  like 
the  Rig- Veda,  is  a  collection  of  documents 
of  uncertain  age,  such  as  the  Gathas,  the 
Yendidad,  the  Yashts,  etc.  Of  these  the 
Gathas  seem  to  be  the  oldest,  but,  as  in  them 
the  Creator  of  Nature  is  worshipped  as  well 
as  Nature  herself,  it  would  seem  that  they  were 
not  written  down  until  the  ancient  Parsees, 
whose  religion  they  represent,  had  reached  a 
high  degree  of  culture.  Zoroaster1  himself 
appears  as  an  historical  personage  in  the 
books  of  the  Avesta,  and  he  is  said  to  have 
"  flourished"  about  2500  B.C.  At  first  the 
teaching  seems  to  have  been  monotheistic, 
and  only  one  deity  is  mentioned,  the  Ahura- 
Mazda  (Ormuzd),  but  the  principle  of  the 
philosophy  arising  out  of  this  teaching  was 
dualism.  There  were  said  to  be  two 

'The  Greek  form  of  the  Persian  name  Zarathustra. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       247 

primordial  causes  of  the  real  and  spiritual 
world,  the  Vohu  Mano,  i.e.,  Good  Mind  or 
Reality  (Gaya),  and  the  Akem  Mano,  or 
Non-Reality  (Ajyaiti.)  The  teaching  of 
Zoroaster  flourished  throughout  Upper 
Thibet,  Persia,  and  the  north-western 
provinces  of  India  until  the  time  of  Alexander 
the  Great,  when  it  declined  rapidly,  and  is 
now  confined  principally  to  a  few  classes  of 
Hindoos.  The  followers  of  this  creed  are 
"  enjoined  to  be  liberal  in  thoughts  and 
deeds,  pious  and  religious  in  ceremonial 
rites,  truthful  and  honest  in  their  dealings, 
active  in  destroying  evil,  industrious  in 
cultivating  land,  persevering  in  the  education 
of  themselves  and  others/' x  The  Par  see  must 
not  eat  anything  which  is  cooked  by  a  person 
of  another  religion,  and  marriages  must  be 
contracted  within  the  limits  of  their  own  castes. 
As  Ahura-Mazda  is  the  origin  of  light,  his 
symbol  is  the  sun,  or,  in  default  of  the  sun, 
the  moon  and  the  stars,  or,  if  all  these  are 
wanting,  fire  of  any  kind.  All  Europeans 
who  have  had  any  dealings  with  Parsees  in 
India  or  Persia  pay  the  highest  testimony  to 
their  character  for  honesty,  industry,  and 
peacefulness ;  while  they  are  well  known  in 

1  The  Teachings  of  Zoroaster,  by  S.A.  Kapaclia. 


248  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

the  East  for  their  benevolence  and  charitable 
works.  One  of  their  characteristic  features  is 
the  strikingly  handsome  appearance  of  both 
men  and  women,  indicating  a  long  period  of 
evolution. 

Another  faith  of  some  importance  in  the 
history  of  the  East  is  that  of  the  Hittites,  but 
unfortunately  we  possess  as  yet  few  definite 
particulars  of  them  beyond  what  can  be 
gleaned  from  the  Old  Testament,  and  the 
few  fragmentary  Hittite  inscriptions  which 
the  researches  of  archaeologists  have  so  far 
brought  to  light.  We  know,  at  all  events, 
that  the  Hittites  waged  war  against  the 
Egyptians  and  the  Assyrians  for  more  than 
a  thousand  years ;  and  they  seem  to  have 
moved  with  the  Israelites  from  the  time  of 
Abraham  to  the  period  of  the  Babylonian 
captivity.  By  putting  together  the  results 
of  the  various  inscriptions  discovered,  it 
would  seem  that  the  Hittites  ruled  over  what 
was,  for  that  epoch,  a  mighty  empire,  as  early 
as  3500  B.C. — an  empire  which  did  not  come 
to  an  end  until  717  B.C.,  when  Sargon  IL, 
the  Babylonian  king,  captured  their  city  of 
Samaria.  While  there  is  something  to  be 
said  about  the  Hittites  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  historian,  there  is,  unfortunately,  little 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       249 

to  be  learned  for  the  information  of  the 
theological  student,  although  Prof.  Sayce, 
Mr  Thomas  Tyler,  the  Revd.  W.  Wright  and 
others  give  good  reasons  for  thinking  that 
the  name  of  the  Hebrew  God  Jehovah  came 
originally  from  a  Hittite  source.  It  would 
appear,  however,  that  the  sun  was  worshipped, 
and  also,  but  not  to  so  great  an  extent,  the 
moon.  A  strange  feature  of  this  religious 
creed,  however,  is  the  worship  of  the  eagle, 
for  that  there  was  a  cult  of  the  eagle  among 
the  Hittites  has  been  virtually  established 
from  the  most  recently  discovered  inscriptions 
and  coins.  Another  strange  emblem  observed 
on  Hittite  stone  tablets  is  a  triangle,  which, 
a  few  critics  have  conjectured,  not  without 
some  plausibility,  represented  the  conception 
of  a  Trinity,  each  corner  standing  for  some 
particular  deity.  Until  further  inscriptions 
are  discovered,  however,  and  what  is  even 
more  to  the  point,  accurately  deciphered,  it 
would  be  very  unwise  to  push  conjecture 
further. 

A  third  faith  which  deserves  a  paragraph 
or  two  is  Mithraism.  It  is  particularly 
interesting  to  the  classical  student  in  that  it 
appears  to  have  been  introduced  into  Rome 
in  68  B.C.  by  some  prisoners  whom  Pompey 


250  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

had  taken  in  battle.  It  rapidly  spread  through 
the  whole  empire,  as  is  amply  proved  by  the 
large  number  of  Mithraic  statues,  inscriptions, 
and  bas-reliefs  discovered  at  various  times. 
Mithra,  who  appears  in  many  Persian  in- 
scriptions as  Mithras,  and  in  the  Rig-Veda 
as  Mitra,  is  generally  taken  to  represent 
the  sun-god  or  god  of  light,  and  is  usually 
looked  upon  as  invariably  fighting  on  the  side 
of  what  is  right,  against  certain  other  gods 
who  struggle  on  behalf  of  evil.  Take,  for 
example,  the  following  quotation  from  the 
Rig-Veda. 

It  is  the  voice  of  Mitra  that  leads  us  men,  Mitra 
sustains  earth  and  heaven  ;  Mitra,  with  eyes  that  close  not, 
watches  over  our  tribes,  to  Mitra  pour  the  fat  oblation. 

That  man  is  blessed,  O  Mitra,  who  duly  serves  thee  : 
none  can  slay  him,  none  can  overcome  him  ;  whom  thou 
dost  guard,  evil  shall  not  reach  him  from  far  or  near. 

Approach  with  reverence  the  great  Aditya,  the  leader 
of  men,  who  is  so  kind  to  the  sinner  ;  to  him,  Mitra  the 
Wonderful,  pour  into  the  fire  the  loved  oblation. 

To  Mitra  our  five  tribes  go  for  help,  and  he  sustains 
the  gods,  Rig-Veda,  iii.  59. 

We  usually  find  Mithra  represented  on 
statues  as  a  handsome  youth,  generally  sitting 
on  a  bull,  into  whose  neck  he  is  plunging  a 
dagger.  A  scorpion,  a  serpent,  a  raven  and 
a  dog  are  also  represented  in  these  scenes,  all 
with  their  allegorical  meaning,  which  un- 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       251 

fortunately,  owing  to  the  destruction  of  all 
the  documents  connected  with  the  creed  by 
the  followers  of  Mohammed,  we  cannot  now 
decipher.  Indeed,  traces  of  Mithraism  have 
been  discovered  in  England,  where  it  was 
doubtless  introduced  by  the  Roman  soldiery. 
The  followers  of  this  faith  were  undoubtedly 
a  serious  menace  to  the  propagation  of 
Christianity  throughout  the  Roman  Empire, 
as  is  evident  from  the  writings  of  the  early 
Fathers.  At  length,  in  the  year  378,  it  was 
ordered  to  be  suppressed,  and,  although  Saint 
Jerome,  writing  several  years  later,  speaks  of 
it  as  still  being  practised,  it  was  not  long 
before  the  last  trace  of  it  had  been  swept  away 
from  both  the  eastern  and  western  divisions 
of  the  later  Roman  Empire. 


CHAPTER  XI 

Summary  and  conclusion — East  and  West — The 
influence  of  Asia  on  Europe. 

THE  connection  between  religion  and  govern- 
ment may  be  well  observed  in  one  of  our  great 
Eastern  possessions.  England  holds  and 
administers  India ;  but,  all  politics  apart,  a 
great  mistake  has  been  made  in  endeavouring 
to  rule  an  Eastern  possession  in  accordance 
with  Western  and  so-called  "  Liberal "  prin- 
ciples. The  Asiatic  differs  from  the  European 
in  almost  everything  ;  but  there  are  few  more 
striking  differences  than  the  respective  views 
of  the  two  continents  on  government.  Japan 
has  to  some  extent  Europeanised  herself ;  but 
it  must  not  be  inferred  from  this  that  the 
Japanese  are  satisfied  with  European  methods 
of  government,  or  that  Indians  would  likewise 
be  satisfied  with  them. 

It  will  not  be  denied  that  English  thinkers 
have  influenced  European  forms  of  government 
to  a  very  great  extent.  It  is  to  Locke,  for 
instance,  rather  than  to  Voltaire  and  Rousseau 

that  we  must  really  ascribe  the  French  Revolu- 

252 


RELIGIONS  AND  PHILOSOPHIES     253 

tion  ;  for  the  two  French  writers  were  pro- 
foundly influenced  by  the  English  one.  But 
the  democratic  principles  advocated  by  English 
thinkers,  while  admirably  adapted  to  the  slow, 
careful  English  temperament,  resulted  in  scenes 
of  extraordinary  horror  and  butchery  when 
carried  out  to  their  logical  conclusions  by 
the  more  ardent  and  impetuous  Frenchmen. 
Similarly,  the  modern  Englishman,  having 
been  brought  up  under  a  constitutional  govern- 
ment, and  being  accustomed  to  elect  members  to 
represent  his  interests  in  a  House  of  Commons, 
thoughtlessly  believes  that  this  is  the  ideal 
system,  and  cannot  conceive  that  millions  of 
people  would  prefer  to  be  ruled  by  an  auto- 
crat if  they  had  their  own  way  in  certain  other 
directions.  "  Gouverner,"  says  a  witty  French 
writer,  Henri  Maret,  "  c'est  embeter  le 
monde  "  (to  govern  is  simply  to  annoy  every- 
body). In  other  words,  Western  methods 
of  government  inevitably  tend  to  interference 
in  the  domestic  concerns  of  the  governed  ;  the 
government  becomes  a  system  of  petty  annoy- 
ance. The  Curfew  edict  can  be  more  than 
matched  in  the  England  of  our  own  day 
with  the  laws  which  prohibit  children  from 
entering  a  public-house,  which  forbid  the 
selling  of  tobacco  to  boys  under  sixteen,  which 


254  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

call  upon  parents  to  send  their  children  to 
school,  which  examine  our  houses  to  make 
sure  that  they  are  sanitary,  and  which,  amidst 
hundreds  of  other  items,  call  for  the  registra- 
tion of  births,  marriages  and  deaths. 

Now,  to  an  Indian,  all  this  sort  of  fussy 
legislation  is  anathema.  The  Oriental  cares 
nothing  for  his  neighbour,  and  it  is  simply 
impossible  to  explain  to  him  the  Christian  law 
that  he  shall  love  his  neighbour  as  himself. 
He  cannot  understand  why  this  should  be 
so,  and  with  some  reason.  In  the  case  of  a 
common  enemy,  such  as  a  tiger  impelled  by 
hunger  to  approach  the  nearest  village,  he  will 
willingly  agree  to  join  his  neighbours  for  the 
purpose  of  defence.  He  will  likewise  join  them 
for  purposes  of  attack,  if  it  be  to  his  advantage 
to  do  so.  Here,  however,  his  relationship 
with  his  neighbour  comes  to  an  end.  Every 
man  is  master  in  his  own  house.  If  he  thinks 
it  necessary  to  send  his  children  to  school  he 
will  do  so  ;  if  not,  he  will  keep  them  at  home. 
But  he  cannot  understand  that,  in  Western 
countries,  thousands  of  men  whom  he  would 
never  see  should,  by  the  simple  process  of 
voting,  which  also  puzzles  him,  send  men  to  a 
place  called  a  House  of  Commons,  there  to 
decide  on  matters  intimately  connected  with 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       255 

his  own  family,  such  as  the  schooling  of  his 
children  and  his  own  hours  of  labour.  In  all 
matters  of  this  sort,  indeed,  the  Oriental  is 
actuated  by  the  most  aristocratic  individualism 
it  is  possible  to  conceive.  He  is  willing  to 
tolerate  any  form  of  government  but  an  inter- 
fering one,  i.e.,  a  "  reforming "  government. 
How  is  this  seen  in  his  religion  ? 

After  all,  the  view  set  forth  by  Nietzsche 
must  never  be  lost  sight  of:  religions  are 
invented  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  and 
perpetuating  a  certain  type  of  man.  Moham- 
medanism was  obviouslyjnvented  for  the  benefit 
of  the  virile  ;  Christianity  for  the  benefit  of 
the  weak.  But  it  may  be  just  possible  that,  as 
the  Greeks  were  forced  to  restrain  their  exuber- 
ance by  the  most  tragic  drama  in  all  literature, 
so  may  the  Indians  have  been  compelled  to 
curb  their  military  ardour  by  the  invention  of 
a  nihilistic  religion.  Obviously  the  primitive 
Aryans  must  have  been  one  of  the  greatest 
races  of  conquerors  the  world  has  ever  known, 
else  how  could  they  have  travelled  thousands  of 
miles  and  subjected  every  nation  they  met 
with,  finally  establishing  on  a  firm  foundation 
a  system  of  government  and  religion  which  has 
endured  for  thousands  of  years  ? 

The  difference  between  the  two  great  nihi- 


256  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

listic  religions,  Buddhism  and  Christianity,  has 
already  been  touched  upon,  but  it  deserves  to 
be  reiterated.  The  European  critic  may  say 
that  Christianity  has  succeeded  in  brightening 
the  lives  of  millions  of  men  and  women  and 
helping  them  in  their  struggle  through  the 
world,  i.e.,  the  doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith 
have  secured  the  preservation  of  a  certain  type 
of  man.  The  modern  biologist,  however,  who 
considers  the  matter  from  a  philosophical  point 
of  view,  will  be  inclined  to  ask,  Was  this  type 
worth  preserving,  more  especially  at  the  cost 
of  the  restrictive  penalties  imposed  on  higher 
minds  by  the  logical  outcome  of  Christianity? 
What  is  there  to  compensate  for  the  rise  of  a 
slave  caste  in  Europe,  with  the  resultant  eleva- 
tion of  all  the  lower  elements  above  the  higher, 
or  for  the  sentimental  frame  of  mind  engendered 
to  such  an  appalling  extent,  especially  in 
the  northern  countries,  by  "love,"  which  is 
purely  a  Christian  invention  ?  The  rise  of 
the  slaves  under  Christianity,  to  which  was 
due,  even  more  than  to  the  influx  of  the 
barbarians,  the  fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  is 
surely  hardly  atoned  for  by  the  production  of 
democratic  upstarts,  temperance  societies,  and 
foreign  missionaries.  Still,  this  religion  of 
ours  came  from  the  East  and  is  one  of  the 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       257 

influences  exercised  upon  Europe  by  Asia. 
Christianity  springs  from  two  Jewish  sects, 
the  Essenes  and  the  Ebionites,  and,  as  the 
latter  name  comes  from  a  Hebrew  word 
meaning  "poor,"  it  may  easily  be  guessed 
where  all  the  sneering  sayings  at  rich  men  in 
the  New  Testament  originated.  Few  teachers, 
indeed,  have  suffered  more  from  their  disciples 
and  followers  than  Christ,  for  whose  real 
opinions — some  of  which  are  very  unlike  those 
in  the  authorised  books  of  the  New  Testament 
— we  must  go  to  the  writers  of  the  Apocrypha. 
But  this  religion,  derived  from  late  Jewish 
sources,  has  been  counteracted  even  in  Europe 
by  a  Hellenic  influence,  to  which  we  owe  the 
preservation  of  men  like  Dryden,  Voltaire, 
Shakespeare,  Goethe  and  Schopenhauer,  to 
pick  out  only  a  few  names  at  random  ;  and  it 
may  seem  strange  to  suggest  that  the  people 
who  fought  unweariedly  to  keep  Hellenism 
alive  in  Europe  were  the  Jews  ;  but  such  is 
nevertheless  the  fact.  We  know  that  thousands 
of  Jews  were  forced  to  settle  in  Alexandria 
three  centuries  before  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era.  There  they  came  under  the 
influence  of  Greek  culture,  and  when  in  later 
times  Alexandria  became  the  seat  of  Greek 
learning,  the  Jews  were  destined  to  make  this 


258  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

culture  their  own,  and  to  uphold  the  noble 
traditions  of  Greece  against  the  nihilistic 
doctrines  of  the  Christian  Church. 

From  the  aristocratic  standpoint,  as  opposed 
to  the  democratic  outlook  and  the  equality  of 
man  laid  down  by  Christianity,  what  we  owe 
to  the  Jews  must  never  be  forgotten.  While 
Christian  teachers  were  mistaking  the  nature 
of  philosophy  and  making  it  a  mere  appendage 
to  theology,1  the  Jewish  thinkers  were  deep  in 
the  study  of  Aristotle  and  the  pre-Platonists. 
It  was  from  Maimonides,  for  example,  that 
Thomas  Aquinas,  who  might  almost  be  called 
the  re-creator  of  the  aristocratic  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church,  obtained  the  main  principles  of 
his  famous  Summa,  although  in  this  borrowing 
the  aristocratic  nature  of  the  Jewish  ecclesi- 
astical polity  was  necessarily  transformed  into 
a  more  democratic  one.  The  beneficent 
influence  of  Judaism  is  still  further  shown  by 
Spinoza,  the  direct  philosophical  descendant 
of  Maimonides,  to  whom  men  like  Disraeli 
and  Heine  owe  much,  and  of  whom  Goethe 
and  Nietzsche  have  both  spoken  in  warm  terms 
of  gratitude. 

Another   great   teacher   who     exercised    an 

1  On  this  point  see  more  particularly  Anti-Pragmathmtt  by  Albert 
Schinz,  Paris,  1909  ;  and  Aspects  of  the  Hebrew  Genius,  Art,  Aristotle 
and  Jewish  Thought,  by  Dr  A.  Wolf. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       259 

enormous  influence  on  the  Christian  Church 
was  the  Mohammedan,  Averrhoes  (Ibn  Roshd), 
born  in  Spain  in  1126.  He  translated  and 
annotated  Aristotle,  and  his  doctrine  of  the 
Universal  Reason  certainly  shows  the  influence 
of  Alexandrian  and  neo-Platonic  teaching. 
His  pantheistic  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the 
active  principle  in  the  universe  caused  quite 
a  controversy  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and 
astrology,  which  seems  to  have  been  much 
associated  with  his  name,  has  added  to  our 
language  the  word  Averrhoism.  When  on  the 
subject  of  Arabian  influence  in  Europe,  it  may 
also  be  worth  while  reminding  the  reader  that 
it  is  to  the  Arabs  that  we  are  indirectly 
indebted  for  our  numerals,  though  these 
undoubtedly  came  to  us  from  India. 

Apart  from  the  Mohammedans  and  Jews, 
however,  India  has  undoubtedly  exercised 
an  enormous  though  indirect  influence  on 
European  thought.  The  works  of  several 
Greek  philosophers  who  lived  five  or  six 
centuries  before  the  Christian  era — such  as 
Thales,  Pythagoras  and  Heraclitus — show  us 
that  problems  connected  with  the  origin  of  the 
universe  and  the  development  of  man  were 
discussed  with  much  critical  acumen  on  the 
shores  of  the  Mediterranean  even  before  the 


260  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

birth  of  Buddha  or  Confucius.  One  remark- 
able doctrine  which  is  worthy  of  especial  notice 
is  that  laid  down  by  Thales  about  600  B.C., 
viz.,  that  water  is  the  original  principle  of  all 
things,  from  which  everything  proceeds,  and 
into  which  everything  is  again  dissolved.  A 
pupil  of  Thales,  Anaximander,  whom  we  can 
trace  as  having  "flourished"  about  570  B.C., 
said  that  all  living  things  had  developed  out  of 
non-living  slime,  and  that  there  was  a  time 
when  man  was  a  fish.  Again,  Empedocles 
definitely  stated  so  early  as  450  B.C.,  that  in- 
numerable forms  were  engendered  by  the 
crystallisation  of  the  primitive  elements,  and 
that  of  these  a  large  number  perished  because 
they  were  unfitted  to  survive — an  old  anticipa- 
tion of  the  doctrine,  which  seems  so  modern 
to  us,  of  the  struggle  for  existence.  Not  long 
afterwards  we  find  Leucippus  putting  forward 
the  atomic  theory,  viz.,  that  the  universe  is 
built  up  of  tiny  particles.  The  origin  of  all 
these  theories,  however,  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  Greek,  but  Indian  ;  for  we  certainly  find 
traces  of  them  in  old  Indian  and  Persian  litera- 
ture ;  so  that  even  Darwin  has  been  anticipated 
by  some  nameless  and  unknown  Brahmanic 
thinker  who  may  have  lived  thirty  or  forty 
centuries  ago.  In  this  connection  it  must  not 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST        261 

be  overlooked  that  Pythagoras  certainly  wrote 
about  the  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of 
souls  about  560  or  550  B.C.,  and  this  is  a 
theory  which  is  certainly  not  Greek,  but 
Indian,  in  its  origin. 

Those  of  us  who  have  read  through  the 
fragments  of  the  early  Greek  historians  will 
have  observed  numerous  references  to  the 
curious  race  known  as  the  Scythians,  upon 
whom  the  researches  of  modern  investigators 
have  thrown  comparatively  little  light.  It  was 
long  believed  by  ethnologists  that  they  were  of 
Mongolian  origin,  but  the  latest  investigations 
certainly  tend  to  show  that  they  were  Aryans. 
They  evidently  wandered  from  the  north  of 
Persia  to  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea  and 
thence  into  Greece,  while  about  700  B.C.  we 
find  traces  of  them  in  Egypt.  There  seems  to 
have  been  also  an  Asiatic  branch  of  the  huge 
tribe,  which,  it  is  significant  to  note,  was  a  firm 
supporter  of  Buddhism  in  the  early  stages  of 
the  faith,  from  which  many  critics  have  sought 
to  prove  that  Buddha  himself  was  of  Scythian 
descent.  On  this  point,  however,  no  definite 
statement  can  be  made,  but  there  seems  to  be 
no  doubt  that  the  Scythians  brought  with  them 
into  Europe  a  great  deal  of  the  Brahmanical 
learning,  which  probably  exercised  no  little 


262  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

influence  on  the  minds  of  those  Greek  thinkers 
who  came  into  contact  with  them. 

The  influence  of  Egyptian  culture  on  Europe 
has  never  yet  been  fully  appreciated.1  There 
is  no  doubt  that  the  Jews  of  Alexandria  were 
strongly  influenced  by  all  branches  of  Egyptian 
learning,  which  itself,  in  its  later  stages,  was 
likewise  considerably  influenced  from  Eastern 
sources.  While,  unfortunately,  Egypt  has  left 
us  no  literature  which  can  be  compared  with 
that  of  Greece  or  Rome,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
the  sculpture  and  art  developed  on  the  banks 
of  the  Nile  were  much  superior  to  those  arts  as 
developed  in  Greece.  In  view  of  the  fact  that 
Englishmen  have  for  generations  been  brought 
up  to  look  upon  Greek  sculpture  as  the  highest 
of  all  types,  such  a  statement  will  no  doubt 
sound  heretical,  but  it  has  already  been  strongly 
advocated  by  competent  critics  in  Germany 
and  Italy,  and  an  Egyptian  Renaissance,  if 
Englishmen  can  ever  be  induced  to  take  an 
interest  in  it,  will  undoubtedly  upset  many  of 
our  pet  theories  regarding  sculpture  and  art. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  with  certainty  what  influ- 
ence the  idea  of  a  Messiah  had  in  buoying  up  the 
Jews  in  the  course  of  their  long  struggle,  but  no 
doubt  it  was  very  great.  So  profound  is  their 

1  "Egypt  :  the  Alma  Mater  of  civilisation,"  says  Lafont. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       263 

belief  that  a  Deliverer  will  one  day  be  sent  by 
Jehovah  to  restore  their  country  to  the  power 
and  splendour  which  it  exhibited  during  the 
reign  of  David  and  Solomon,  and  to  compel 
the  Gentiles  to  acknowledge  the  superiority  of 
the  Chosen  People,  that  not  all  the  discoveries 
of  modern  science  or  all  the  mass  of  learning 
which  goes  by  the  name  of  the  Higher  Criticism 
can  eradicate  this  fixed  belief  from  their  souls. 
This  Deliverer  is  to  be  sent  to  the  Chosen 
People,  and  to  them  only,  which  tends  in  a 
great  measure  to  explain  why  the  Jews  refrain 
from  making  converts  among  other  races.  No 
people  has  ever  striven  so  hard  to  keep  its 
type  pure,  and  this  is  one  great  lesson  which 
modern  European  nations  fail  to  learn.  It  is 
clear  that  even  the  downfall — or  what  practi- 
cally amounted  to  the  downfall — of  the  Brahmans 
at  the  time  of  Buddha  was  due  to  their 
neglecting  this  precaution.  Probably  the  most 
illuminating  sentence  in  the  Brahmanic  writings, 
and  one  upon  which  many  a  moral  text  could 
be  hung,  is  this  :  "  The  castes  became  mixed." 
In  other  words,  the  higher  classes  intermarried 
with  the  lower,  the  Aryans  with  the  aborigines, 
and  the  result  was  a  degradation  of  the  race. 
Though  this  had  not  gone  very  far,  however, 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  Brahmanism  was  able 


264  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

to  reassert  its  superiority  and  finally  to  drive 
Buddhism  out  of  India.  But  the  priests  were 
now  allied  for  purposes  of  defence  and  not 
attack.  No  ethnologist  can  read  through  the 
Laws  of  Manu  and  fail  to  be  impressed  by  the 
penalties  imposed  for  the  crime  of  marriage 
between  the  higher  and  lower  castes.  Com- 
paratively gentle  at  first,  the  punishment 
increases  in  severity ;  and  we  can  see  that 
through  long  centuries  every  effort  was  made 
to  check  what,  even  in  those  early  times,  was 
clearly  recognised  as  race  degeneracy.  There 
is  a  modern  assumption,  particularly  prevalent 
in  the  United  States  of  America,  that  by  inter- 
marriage among  different  nationalities  a  new 
and  strong  nation  will  eventually  arise.  The 
wish  in  this  case  is  certainly  father  to  the 
theory ;  for  a  more  noxious  combination  of 
races,  or  rather  tribes,  than  those  in  the  United 
States  of  America  it  would  be  difficult  to  find. 
This  theory,  however,  is  merely  an  echo  of  the 
exploded  assumptions  underlying  the  views  of 
the  English  evolutionists  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  all  of  which  amounted  to  saying  that 
if  people  were  left  to  develop  themselves,  no 
matter  in  how  chaotic  a  manner,  the  best  would 
nevertheless  come  to  the  surface,  and  were,  in 
fact,  already  there  ;  a  view  which  set  at  rest 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       265 

for  ever  the  consciences  of  grasping  landlords 
and  sweating  capitalists.  The  more  scientific 
investigations  of  Continental  thinkers,  how- 
ever, have  shown  that  evolution  must  be 
directed  towards  some  clearly-defined  end — 
though  this  is  hardly  a  matter  which  calls  for 
discussion  in  this  work. 

To  sum  up  our  investigations,  it  will  have 
been  observed  that  religion  is  largely  a  matter 
of  temperament  and  environment,  and  that, 
as  temperaments  change  in  a  race,  owing  to 
degeneracy  or  other  causes,  the  religion  of  the 
race  will  also  undergo  certain  modifications.  It 
is  impossible  to  hold  up  one  form  of  religion 
and  to  say  that  it  suits  all  men  equally  well. 
All  the  struggles  between  the  Catholics  and 
Protestants  in  the  north  and  south  of  Europe 
have  simply  been  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
Southern  temperament  cannot  and  will  not 
put  up  with  the  asceticism,  anti-sexuality,  and 
so  on,  which  are  so  well  suited  to  the  cloudy 
and  muddier  spirits  to  be  found  in  the 
Northern  countries.  It  has  also  happened 
many  thousands  of  times  that  individuals  are 
born  in  Christian  countries  who,  when  the 
effects  of  their  own  particular  heredity  make 
themselves  felt,  develop  temperaments  which 
are  diametrically  opposed  to  the  average  of  the 


266  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

temperaments  by  which  they  are  surrounded, 
although  they  may  belong  to  families  which 
are  nominally  Christian.  All  rarely  gifted 
spirits  are  possessed  of  these  exceptional 
temperaments,  and  they  are  naturally  acutely 
disliked  under  the  intolerant  regime  of 
Christianity.  Such  men  were  Napoleon,  who 
has  long  been  a  victim  to  misrepresentation 
and  slander  on  account  of  his  very  natural 
amorous  propensities,  and  also  Shakespeare, 
who  suffered  the  terrible  fate  of  being  mutilated 
by  Dr  Bowdler.  Another  victim  was  Byron, 
to  whom  burial  in  Westminster  Abbey  was 
refused  (although  it  was  granted  to  Darwin, 
who  had  led  the  English  upper  classes  of 
his  time  to  believe  that  everything  was  for 
the  best  in  this  best  of  all  possible  worlds)  ; 
Shelley,  who  was  expelled  from  Oxford  merely 
because  his  opinions  were  three-quarters  of 
a  century  in  advance  of  those  held  by  the 
authorities  of  the  University  ;  Gibbon,  who 
has  been  severely  censured  for  venturing  to 
hint  that  Mohammed  was  more  worthy  of 
admiration  than  Christ,  and — but  the  list 
might  be  extended  indefinitely. 

What,  then,  is  our  final  word  ?  Shall  we 
strain  the  vocabulary  a  little  and  say,  with 
Pythagoras,  our  'avrlxOwv  ?  Merely  this  :  that 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       267 

the  religion  of  men  of  inferior  intellects  must 
be  prescribed  for  them  by  the  higher  order 
of  men,  and  not,  as  is  usually  the  case  at 
present,  vice  versa.  The  Roman  Catholic 
priest,  who  thinks  for  his  flock,  is  a  much 
more  noble  figure  than  the  Methodist  preacher 
whose  congregation  "  think  for  themselves." 
It  is  gratifying  to  observe  that  the  Church  of 
England  is  every  year  approaching  more  and 
more  closely  to  the  Church  of  Rome  in  this 
particular  respect.  But  Christianity  itself  must 
not  be  imposed  on  higher  spirits  who  do  not 
want  it.  If  only  the  Brahmanical  caste  system 
could  be  introduced  into  Europe  and  maintained 
in  a  pure  form  for  three  or  four  thousand  years, 
as  was  the  case  in  India,  then  indeed  would  it 
be  time  for  us  Europeans  to  apply  to  ourselves 
the  words — written  in  a  spirit  of  irony,  perhaps 
— of  a  famous  English  poet : — 

Our  birth  is  but  a  sleep  and  a  forgetting, 
The  soul  that  rises  with  us — our  life's  star, 

Hath  had  elsewhere  its  setting, 

And  cometh  from  afar, 
Not  in  entire  forgetfulness, 
And  not  in  utter  nakedness, 
But  trailing  clouds  of  glory  do  we  come 

From  God,  who  is  our  home. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

THE  following  is  not  by  any  means  a  complete 
list  of  all  the  authorities  I  have  consulted,  but 
is  merely  intended  to  bring  to  the  notice  of 
the  reader  a  few  of  the  comparatively  recent 
books  dealing  with  the  religions  under  dis- 
cussion : — 

RACES,  PRIMITIVE  MAN,  ETC. 

Bossert,  A.,  Schopenhauer.     Paris,  1904. 

Gobineau,  J.  A.  de,  Sur  PInegalite  des  races  humaines. 

Paris,  1853-55. 
Goldstein,  Dr  F.,  Urchristentum    und  Sozialdemokratie. 

Zurich,   1899. 

Jedlicska,  J.,  Die  Entstehung  der  Welt.     Vienna,  1903. 
Lafont,  G.  de,  Les  Aryas  de  Galilee.     Paris,  1902. 
Lampert,  K.,  Die  Volker  der  Erde.     Leipzig,  1902-3. 
Mortillet,  G.  de,  Le  Pre'historique.     Paris,  1900. 
Much,   M.,  Die   Heimat   der   Indorgermanen.     Leipzig, 

1904. 
Muller,  J.,  Uber  Ursprung  und  Heimat  des  Urmenschen. 

Leipzig,  1 8 — . 

Oliviera-Martins,  J.  P.,  As  Ra$as  humanas.    Lisbon,  1881. 
Reclus,  E.,  Les  Primitifs.     Paris,  1903. 
Rosny,  J.  H.  de,  Les  Origines  de  THomme.     Paris,  1895. 
Sabatier,  L.  A.,  Esquisse  d'une  Philosophic  de  la  Religion. 

Paris,  1897. 

269 


270  THE  RELIGIONS  AND 

Sanson,  A.,  L'Espece  et  la  Race  en  biologic.     Paris,  1900. 
Tille,  A.,  Von  Darwin  bis  Nietzsche.     Leipzig,  1895. 
Townsend,  M.,  Asia  and  Europe.     London,  1905. 

BRAHMANISM 

Davis,  J.,  The  Bhagavad-Gita.     London,  1882. 
Dhirendranatha,  Pala,  Religion  of  the  Hindoos.     Madras, 

1903. 

Haigh,  H.,  Leading  Ideas  of  Hinduism.     London,  1903. 
Havell,  E.  E.,  Benares.     London,  1905. 
Jones,  Sir  W.,  Laws  of  Manu.     London,  1880,  etc. 
Kreyher,  J.,  Die  Weisheit  der  Brahmanen.    Leipzig,  1901. 
Milloud,  L.  de,  Le  Brahminisme.     Paris,  1905. 
Muir,  J.,  Translations  from  the  Vedas.     Edinburgh,  1870 

(privately  printed). 

M  filler,  Max  (and  others),The  Rig- Veda.  Oxford,  1 849-74. 
Muralidhara,  Raya,  Sree  Krishna.     Madras,  1901. 
Petersen   and    Bhandarkar,  Hymns  from  the    Rig-Veda. 

Bombay,   1905. 
Phillips,  Maurice,  The  Teaching  of  the  Vedas.     London, 

1895. 

Phillips,  Maurice,  Evolution  of  Hinduism.    Madras,  1903. 
Phillips,  Maurice,  The  Bhagavad-Gita.     Madras,  1893. 
Sankara-Acharya,  Compendium  of  the  Raja  Yoga  Philo- 
sophy.    Calcutta,  1901. 
Whitney,   W.   D.  and  Lanman,    C.   R.,  Atharva-Veda. 

London,   1905. 
Venkataratnam,     Lammadi,     Hebrew     Origin      of     the 

Brahmans.     Madras,   1901. 

BUDDHISM 

Beal,  S.,  Dhammapada  (Texts  from).     London,  1902. 
Falke,    R.,    Buddha,    Mohammed,    Christus.       Leipzig, 
1896-7. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       271 

Feer,  £.,  Etudes  Bouddhiques.     Paris,  1873. 

Fraser,   A.    T.,    The    Drift    of    Buddhism   from    India. 

London,  1905. 

Lafont,  G.  de,  Le  Buddhisme.     Paris,  1895. 
Lorenzo,  G.  de,  India  e  Buddhismo  antico.     Milan,  1904. 
Schreiber,  M.,  Buddha  und  die  Frauen.     Leipzig,  1903. 
Smith,  Vincent  A.,  The  Edicts  of  Asoka.     Oxford,  1909. 
Smith,    Vincent     A.,    Asoka,    the     Buddhist    Emperor. 

Oxford,   1909. 
Wurm,  H.,  Der  Buddha.     Leipzig,  1880. 

JUDAISM 

Baudissin,  Wolf  Wilhelm  F.  von,  Studien  zur  Semitischen 
Religionsgeschichte.  Leipzig,  1876-8. 

Cornill,  Prof.  Carl  H.,  Der  Israelitische  Prophetismus. 
Strassburg,  1905. 

Funk,  S.,  Die  Juden  in  Babylonien.     Berlin,  1902. 

Geiger,  Ludwig.  Judenthum  und  seine  Geschichte. 
Breslau,  1865. 

Geiger,  Ludwig,  Quid  de  Judaeorum  moribus  scrip. 
Romanis  persuasum  fuerit.  Berlin,  1872. 

Graez,  Dr  Heinrich,  Geschichte  der  Juden.  Leipzig, 
1850,  foil. 

Jeremias  A.,  Das  Alte  Testament  im  Lichte  des  alten 
Orients.  Leipzig,  1904. 

Marti,  C.,  Geschichte  der  Israelitischen  Religion.  Strass- 
burg, 1903. 

MOHAMMEDANISM 

Amir,  Ali,  Spirit  of  Islam.     Calcutta,  1902. 
Caetani,  L.,  Annali  dell'  Islam.     Milan,  1905,  foil. 
Carra  de  Vaux,  Baron,  Islamisme  en  face  de  la  civilisation 
moderne.     Paris,  1905. 


272    RELIGIONS  AND  PHILOSOPHIES 

Contenson,  L.  de,  Chretiens  et  Musulmans.     Paris,  1901. 
Dods,    Dr    Marcus,    Mohammed,    Buddha    and    Christ. 

London,   1877. 
Gregory    (Bar    Hebraeus),    Specimen    Historiae   Arabum 

(edited  by  Pocock).     London,   1806. 
Mariano,  R.,  Buddismo  e  Cristianesimo.     Milan,  1890. 
Muir,  Sir  W.,  Life  of  Mahomet.     London,  1877. 
Muir,  Sir  W.,  Mahomet  and  Islam.     London,  1887. 
Muir,    Sir   W.,    Some    of    the    Sources    of    the    Koran. 

London,   1901. 

Muir,  Sir  W.,  The  Caliphate.     London,  1899. 
Pizzi,  L'Islamismo.     Milan,  1903. 
Tisdall,    W.    St    C.,    Original    Sources    of    the    Quran. 

London   1905. 

BABYLON,  CHINA,  ETC. 

Chamberlain,  B.  H.,  Ko-ji-ki  (Asiatic  Society,  Yokohama 

Academy).     Tokio,  1874,  foil. 
Fossey,  C.,  Manuel  d'Assyriologie.     Paris,  1904. 
Giles,  Lionel,  Sayings  of  Confucius,  The.     London,  1909. 
Griffis,  W.  E.,  Religions  of  Japan.     London,  1895. 
Hammurabi,  King   of  Babylon  (edited  by  C.  Edwards), 

The  Hammurabi  Code.     London,   1904. 
Legge,    Dr     James,     Confucius'     Life     and     Teaching. 

London,   1887. 

Nitobe,  J.,  Bushido.     New  York,  1905. 
Plath,  H.  von,  Confucius    und  seine    Schiller.     Leipzig, 

1867. 
University   of    Pennsylvania,    Expedition    to    Babylonia. 

1888-1890.     (Pubd.,  2  vols.,  Philadelphia,   1898.) 


INDEX 


AKU,  the  moon-god,  239. 

Alexandria,  257. 

Allah,  see  Mohammedanism. 

Anaximander,  260. 

Apocrypha,  the,  257. 

Arabs,  their  early  religious  system, 
98  ;  their  purity  of  race,  149  ; 
what  Europe  owes  to,  259. 

Aryans,  rise  of,  12  ;  antiquity  of 
their  language,  2 ;  their  wan- 
derings, 12  ;  development  of  the 
tribe,  14. 

Asiatics,  their  recognition  of  higher 
minds,  214. 

Asoka,  King,  his  protection  of 
Buddhism,  86  j  his  Buddhistic 
Council,  87 ;  the  Edicts  of, 
88  ;  his  propagation  of  Budd- 
hism, 91. 

Averrhoes,  his  influence,  259. 

BABEL,  the  Tower  of,  244. 

Babism,  rise  of,  172  ;  the  Bab's 
early  years,  170;  his  prophecies 
and  works,  176  ;  Babism  com- 
pared with  Christianity,  171  ; 
its  motley  following,  172  ;  arrest 
of  the  Bab,  176  ;  Babism  and 
women,  175  ;  doctrines  of  the 
sect,  176  ;  execution  of  the  Bab, 
177  ;  attempted  assassination  of 
the  Shah  by  Babis,  178  ;  perse- 
cution of  the  Babis,  174;  emi- 
gration of  the  Babis  to  Bagdad, 
179 ;  codification  of  the  Bab's 
doctrines,  179  ;  separation  from 
the  Behais,  180. 


Babylon,  commercial  development 
of,  235  ;  early  deities  of,  236; 
captured  by  Cyrus,  242 ;  finan- 
cial influence  of  the  Jews  in, 
242  ,•  influence  of,  on  the  Jews, 
201,  243. 

Babylonia,  primitive  inhabitants 
of,  234 ;  consolidation  of,  by 
Sargon  I.  and  Cammurabi,  240. 

Bacchanalia,  early  Indian,  tee 
Soma. 

Belshazzar,  assassination  of,  242. 

Behaism,  its  tenets,  183  ;  its  uni- 
versality, 184;  removal  of  the 
sect  to  Saint  Jean  d'Acre,  181  ; 
the  industry  and  progress  of  the 
sect,  182. 

Berosus,  236. 

Bhagavad-Gita,the  basis  of  popular 
Hinduism,  43  ;  meaning  of, 
43  ;  comparison  with  the  New 
Testament,  44 ;  main  theme 
of,  45  ;  its  conception  of  the 
cosmos  outlined,  48  ;  its  con- 
ception of  man,  49  ;  its  views 
of  the  caste  system,  50 ;  com- 
parison with  the  Koran,  53. 

Brahma,  mythological  account  of, 
15  ;  as  supreme  Hindoo  deity, 

3°- 
Brahmanism,  the  confusion  of  its 

theological     system,     33;      its 

principal  deities,  34  ;  threatened 

by  Buddhism,  57. 
Brahmans,  rise   of  the  sect,  20  ; 

source  of  their  supreme  power, 

21. 


s 


273 


274 


THE  RELIGIONS  AND 


Buddha,  his  parentage,  57  ;  birth 
of,  58  ;  characteristics  of  his 
childhood,  60  ;  anecdotes  of 
his  youth,  61  ,-  flies  from  the 
palace,  62;  tempted  by  Mara, 
62 ;  Brahmanical  training, 
63;  his  great  ^temptation,  64; 
training  of  disciples,  68  ;  visit 
to  his  father,  69  ;  religious  pro- 
paganda, 70  ;  his  death,  72  ; 
learning,  72  ;  salient  character- 
istics, 74  5  relics  of,  80. 

Buddhism,  54  5  metaphysics  of, 
77 ;  its  conception  of  the 
cosmos,  78  ;  its  rejection  of 
the  caste  system,  82 ;  spread 
of  the  faith,  75  ;  compared 
with  Christianity,  83  ;  Nietz- 
sche's explanation  of,  84 ; 
changes  in  the  doctrines  of,  86 ; 
not  derived  from  supernatural 
sources,  93  ;  Buddhistic  writ- 
ings, the,  93;  in  Europe  and 
Asia,  76  ;  materialism  of,  77  ; 
the  four  great  truths  of,  78  ; 
welcomed  in  China  and  Japan, 

93  ;  sets  virtue  above  wisdom, 

94  ;    its   pessimism,    94  ;   posi- 
tion of  women  under,  94  ;  anti- 
sexualism,  97. 

Burnouf,  E.,  quoted,  30. 
Bushido,  231. 

CALIFS,  140. 

Cammurabi,  consolidation  of  Baby- 
lonia by,  240. 

Caste  system,  development  of,  19  ; 
Chandal  caste,  52,  note. 

Castes,  the  four  divisions  of,  195 
mixture  of,  23. 

Chaldea,  235,  236. 

Chandal,  caste,  the,  52,  note. 

China,  early  history  of,  21 1  j  lack 
of  god-idea  in,  27  ;  character- 
istics of  the  people,  214;  lack 
of  poetry  in,  225. 

Christianity,  invented  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  weak,  255  ;  Nietzsche's 


view  of,  85  ;  its  spread  among 
the  lower  classes,  185  its 
origin,  257. 

Confucius,  birth  of,  211  ;  his 
marriage  and  early  youth,  212  ; 
meets  Lao-Tze,  212  ;  appointed 
Governor  of  Chung-tu  ,212;  sets 
out  on  his  travels,  213  ;  his 
numerous  disciples,  213  ;  his  re- 
turn to  Lu,  213  ;  his  death, 
213  ;  quoted,  215,  216,  217, 
218  ;  lack  of  arrangement  in 
his  writings,  217;  influence  on 
modern  China,  218. 

DAV-KINA,  237. 

Democracy  and  its  dangers,  18, 
3*- 

EA,  236. 

Egypt,  emigration   of  Jews   into, 

185;    early    culture    of,    186  ; 

polytheism  in,  186. 
Empedocles,  260. 
England,   Church   of,  aristocratic 

nature  of,  18. 
English  thinkers,  their   influence 

on  European  government,  253. 
Eridu,  236. 
Eri-dugga,  236. 
Euripides,  quoted,  40. 

GAUTAMA,  see  Buddha. 

Gods,     worship     of,     28 ;     early 

Indian,  29. 
Government,  forms   of,  preferred 

by  the  Hindoo,  254, 
Greeks,  the,  the   exuberance  and 

tragic  drama    of,  255;    culture 

of,  compared  with  the  Egyptian 

culture,  262. 

HANIFS,  their  influence  on 
Mohammedanism,  102-3. 

Hari-Kari,  232. 

Herodotus,  his  researches  con- 
firmed, 235. 


PHILOSOPHIES  OF  THE  EAST       275 


Hindoos    (see    also    India),   their 

military  ardour,  255. 
Hittites,  248. 

INDIA,  English  administration  of, 
252  :  individuality  of  the  people 
of,  255  ;  invasion  of,  by  Aryans, 
II ;  early  law  codes,  21 ;  early 
inhabitants  of,  27. 

Individualism,  Eastern,  255. 

Intolerance,  Christian,  examples 
of,  266. 

Islam,  see  Mohammedanism. 

Istar,  237. 

JAPAN,  Europeanisation  of,  252; 
influence  of  the  Samurai  on, 
233  j  earliest  documents  of, 
227  ;  dominant  tribes  in,  227  ; 
Shintoism  in,  228  ;  Buddhism 
in,  229. 

Jerusalem  captured  by  Solomon, 
200  ;  by  the  Babylonians,  200  ; 
by  the  Egyptians,  201  ;  by  the 
Romans,  202. 

Jews,  the,  emigration  into  Egypt, 
185 ;  the  progress  of,  under 
Egyptian  civilisation,  1 86  ;  their 
slavery  and  harsh  treatment, 
187  ;  deliverance  by  Moses, 
192;  early  characteristics,  192; 
their  long  struggle  for  existence, 
196;  their  aristocratic  morality, 
197  ;  their  influence,  198  ;  in 
the  "Promised  Land,"  199; 
Mosaic  law,  195  ;  and  its  neg- 
lect after  death  of  Joshua,  199  ; 
the  kings,  200 ;  Babylonian 
Captivity,  201  ;  influence  of 
Alexandrian  culture  upon,  202  ; 
and  Hellenism,  202,  257. 

Joshua,  199. 

KORAN,  the,  influence  of,  142 ; 
most  widely-read  book,  142; 
how  composed,  144  j  Jewish  in- 
fluence on,  146  ;  meaning  of  the 
word,  147 ;  arrangement  of, 


147  ;  themes  dealt  with  in,  1 52  ; 
legal  decisions  in,  152;  com- 
parison with  the  Old  Testament, 
156;  chronological  divisions  of, 
158;  first  editing  of,  16 1  ;  com- 
mentaries on,  163. 
Krishna,  43/o//. 

LAO-TZK,  birth  of,  220  ;  his  philo- 
sophy, aristocratic  nature  of, 

221. 

Leprosy,  frequent  outbreaks  of, 
among  the  Jews,  191. 

Locke,  and  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, 252. 

MAIMONIDES,  influence  of,  258. 

Mantras,  the,  see  Vedas. 

Manu,  Laws  of,  21,  22. 

Maret,  Henri,  quoted,  253. 

Mencius,  223. 

Merodach,  237. 

Messiah,  the,  262. 

Mithras  250. 

Mohammed,  his  physical  charac- 
teristics, 1 02  ;  birth  of,  101  ; 
travels  in  Palestine,  101  ;  mar- 
ries Khadija,  101  ;  early  interest 
in  religion,  102 ;  his  epilepsy, 
102  ;  revelations  to,  on  Mount 
Hira,  103  ;  his  first  converts, 
106 ;  his  religious  mission, 
107 ;  quarrels  with  the  Mec- 
cans,  109  ;  visits  to  the  Taif, 
113;  his  second  wife,  113; 
negotiations  with  the  men  of 
Medina,  114;  flight  to  Medina, 
116  ;  supreme  magistrate  of 
Medina,  119;  quarrels  with  the 
Jews  at  Medina,  123  ;  attacks 
the  Meccan  caravans,  127; 
makes  war  on  the  Koraish, 
128  ;  attacks  the  Jews  in  Me- 
dina, 130;  conquers  Mecca, 
135;  expedition  against  the 
Greeks,  137;  pilgrimage  to 
Mecca,  138  ;  final  address,  139; 
his  last  illness  and  death,  140. 


276    RELIGIONS  AND  PHILOSOPHIES 


Mohammedanism,  invented  for  the 
benefit  of  the  strong,  255  ;  its 
ethics,  155  ;  the  five  precepts  of, 
124;  fatalism,  164;  progress  of, 
after  the  Prophet's  death,  140. 

Morality   of  the  Old  Testament, 

143- 

Moses,  his  high  descent,  188; 
early  studies,  189  ;  kills  an  un- 
just Egyptian,  189;  his  pro- 
phetic insight,  190;  joined  by 
Aaron,  190  ;  receives  the  Ten  j 
Commandments,  195. 

Mythology,  connection  between 
Greek  and  Aryan,  13-15. 

NABONIDUS,  last  native  Babylonian 
king,  242. 

Nietzsche,  his  views  of  religion, 
7  ;  aphorism  on  religious  ecstasy, 
148  ;  study  of,  in  England,  ix. 

Nirvana,  see  Buddhism. 

Nitobe,  quoted,  233. 

OM,  sacred  syllable,  41. 
Oriental,    the,    and    Christianity, 
254. 

PARIAHS,  the,  53  note. 
Persians,  in  Arabia,  98. 
Polytheism,    in     India,     30;     in 

Egypt,  186;  in  Arabia,  99. 
Purgatory,  compared  with    Brah- 

manical  tenets,  57. 
Pythagoras,  259,  261. 

RACES,  necessity  for  the  purity  of, 
245-6. 

Religion,  its  theory  and  practice, 
86-87  ;  meaning,  8. 

Rig- Veda,  tee  Vedas. 

Rousseau  and  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, 252. 


SAMURAI,  the,  see  Japan. 

Sargon  1.,  see  Babylon. 

Sargon  II. ,  see  Hittites. 

Scythians,  the,  261. 

Semites,  emigration  into  Meso- 
potamia, 234. 

Sera,  Dr,  quoted,  20-21. 

Serf,  the,  in  modern  times,  17,  32. 

Serpent,  the,  mentioned  in  Baby- 
lonian hymns,  237. 

Shiites,  141. 

Shinar,  see  Babylon. 

Shintoism,  its  meaning  and 
features,  228. 

Siddhartha,  see  Buddha. 

Sin,  239. 

Sinai,  193. 

Siva,  41. 

Socialism,  early  initance  of,  92. 

Soma,  34. 

Sunnites,  141. 

Sura,  see  the  Koran. 

TAMMUZ,  237. 
Taoism,  see  Lao-Tze. 
Thales,  259. 
Toleration,  its  origin,  203. 

UPANISHADS,  see  Vedas. 
Ur,  238. 

VEDAS,  the,  their  origin  and  de- 
velopment, 2$  foil. 

Vedism,  the  primitive  Aryan 
worship,  30 ;  development  into 
Brahmanism,  31. 

Voltaire  and  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, 252. 

WORDSWORTH,  quoted  267. 
ZOROASTIR,  his  teaching,  246-7. 


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